Ultrasmall copper nanoparticles from a hydrophobically immobilized surfactant template.
Ultrasmall copper nanoparticles are produced by N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (TMPDA) reduction of aqueous Cu(2+) on a hydrophobically immobilized sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) surfactant template in the presence of sodium citrate at room temperature. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) act as a scaffold controlling the size of the SDBS micelle, which in turn confines a limited number of copper ions near the nanotube surface. TMPDA reduction forms copper nanoparticles as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electron diffraction, whose size was determined by atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy to be approximately 2 nm. Particles formed in the absence of the SWNT immobilizer range from 2 to 150 nm.
Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, an Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.
Jonathan J
JJ
Brege
Christopher E
CE
Hamilton
Christopher A
CA
Crouse
Andrew R
AR
Barron