Issue 43, 2021

Can surface capping ligands probe cation exchange in inorganic nanoparticles?

Abstract

Cation exchange by post-synthetic modification of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) is commonly monitored by probing alterations to the NP core, and not much is known about the ability of surface capping ligands to probe these reactions. This work systematically investigates the infrared (IR) absorption spectra of surface capping ligand 1-thioglycerol (1-TG) in ZnS or Zn(Tb)S NPs post-synthetically modified with Mn+ (Pb2+, Hg2+, Cd2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+) individually, with [NPs] : [Mn+] = 1 : 1. An exchange of Zn2+ is observed in NPs with [NPs] : [Pb2+]/[Hg2+]/[Cd2+] = 1 : 1. Cation exchange in these NPs is associated with structural reorganization of (a) the H-bonding network and (b) the backbone structure of 1-TG, and this effect is found to be unperturbed by dopants. The spectral characteristics of [NPs] : [Mn+] = 1 : 10−2 NPs were also examined, which identified that the observed tuning of IR spectral properties is indeed a reflection of cation exchange and is not influenced merely by the chemical identity of the post-synthetically added cation. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first experimental demonstration of surface capping ligands’ usefulness for probing cation exchange reactions in inorganic NPs, and should open an additional sensing perspective for tracking such reactions.

Graphical abstract: Can surface capping ligands probe cation exchange in inorganic nanoparticles?

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Jun 2021
Accepted
01 Sep 2021
First published
02 Sep 2021

New J. Chem., 2021,45, 20120-20132

Can surface capping ligands probe cation exchange in inorganic nanoparticles?

S. Rudra, M. Bhar and P. Mukherjee, New J. Chem., 2021, 45, 20120 DOI: 10.1039/D1NJ02842A

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