Trialkylphosphine oxide/amine stabilised silver nanocrystals—the importance of steric factors and Lewis basicity in capping agents

Abstract

The preparation of specifically passivated silver quantum dots is reported. Investigations into the surface-capping agents have highlighted the importance of both the chain length and bonding strength of the individual ligands. Capping agents traditionally utilised to stabilise semiconductor quantum dots cannot always be used to effectively passivate metal structures, and a dual surfactant system was chosen. Long chain amines, usually weakly binding to a bulk silver surface, were found to be effective passivating agents. The steric properties of weakly bound trialkylphosphine oxides also appear to affect the particle stability. The choice of capping agents highlight the importance of both the Lewis base functionality and steric factors and these may play a key part in the design of future nanostructured materials. It also emphasizes that effective capping agents for nanodispersed metals are not necessarily the optimum ligands for other systems such as semiconductors, metal oxides, etc.