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Ordering and Interactions of Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs) with Fractional Surface Coverage of Ligands

ORAL

Abstract

We studied the properties of self-assembled AuNPs monolayers. These monolayers are formed from solutions with varying thiol concentrations. We show that equilibrium between adsorbed thiols on Au cores and thiols in the bulk solution imply fractional coverage of the Au cores. The equilibrium coverage of AuNPs is adequately described by Langmuir adsorption kinetics, and, therefore, we interpret the way in which varying thiol concentration affects the nanoparticle-nanoparticle interactions as a function of surface coverage of the Au core [1]. We also examine the structure and general shape of the ligand envelope as a function of the surface coverage using molecular dynamics simulation and demonstrate that the equilibrium structure of the envelope and the deformation of that envelope generated by interaction between the AuNPs are coverage-dependent, so that the shape, depth, and position of the minimum of the potential of mean force display a systematic dependence on the ligand coverage [2].

[1] Reik et al, Soft Matter, 2019, DOI: 10.1039/c9sm01579e
[2] Liepold, et al, J. Chem. Phys., 2019, doi.org/10.1063/1.5064545

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Presenters

  • Binhua Lin

    Institute of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, University of Chicago

Authors

  • Morgan E Reik

    University of Chicago

  • Chris Liepold

    University of Chicago

  • Sean D Griesemer

    University of Chicago

  • Wei Bu

    Institute of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, University of Chicago, ChemCARS, The University of Chicago

  • Alex Smith

    University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley

  • Stuart A Rice

    University of Chicago

  • Juan De Pablo

    University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago. Argonne National Laboratory, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineerin, The University of Chicago, Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago

  • Binhua Lin

    Institute of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, University of Chicago