title: Quantitatively Monitoring the Size-Focusing of Au Nanoclusters and Revealing What Promotes the Size Transformation from Au44(TBBT)28to Au36(TBBT)24.
abstract: "Size-focusing" is a well-recognized process and widely employed for the synthesis of atomically monodisperse metal nanoclusters. However, quantitatively monitoring the size-focusing of Au nanoclusters has not been achieved yet, and the in-depth understanding of the size focusing is far from completed. Herein, we introduce a facile, cheap, and powerful tool, preparative thin-layer chromatography (PTLC), to quantitatively track the size-focusing process, to reveal that mainly ∼3 nm nanoparticles promote the transformation from Au44(TBBT)28to Au36(TBBT)24(where TBBT is 4-tert-butylbenzenethiolate) and to improve the syntheses of Au44(TBBT)28and Au36(TBBT)24. Our work further demonstrates the usefulness of PTLC in nanocluster research and advances one step toward understanding the "size-focusing" process of nanoclusters.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Lingwen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Chuanhao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Chengming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Shubo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Jishi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Man-Bo
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
authors.forename: Zhikun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu