A. Frenkel, S. Nemzer, I. Pister
Nov 4, 2005
Citations
1
Influential Citations
114
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Journal
The Journal of chemical physics
Abstract
Size-controlled synthesis of nanoparticles of less than a few nanometers in size is a challenge due to the spatial resolution limit of most scattering and imaging techniques used for their structural characterization. We present the self-consistent analysis of the extended x-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy data of ligand-stabilized metal nanoclusters. Our method employs the coordination number truncation and the surface-tension models in order to measure the average diameter and analyze the structure of the nanoparticles. EXAFS analysis was performed on the two series of dodecanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticles prepared by one-phase and two-phase syntheses where the only control parameter was the gold/thiol ratio xi, varied between 6:1 and 1:6. The two-phase synthesis resulted in the smaller particles whose size decreased monotonically and stabilized at 16 A when xi was lowered below 1:1. This behavior is consistent with the theoretically predicted thermodynamic limit obtained previously in the framework of the spherical drop model of Au nanoparticles.