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Facile purification of ultrathin Au nanowires: A solvent exclusion method

简单地纯化超细金纳米线的方法: 溶剂排除法

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Abstract

Ultrathin Au nanowires are always synthesized with 2 nm Au nanoparticles as the by-product, and their separation has been a long-standing problem. In this work, we show that high-purity (>99%) separation can be achieved using the solvent exclusion method: Adding hexane would cause water to be excluded from the initial water-THF mixture. The excluded water preferentially nucleates on the oleylamine-bilayer of the nanowires, transferring them into the water phase. Careful control experiments were conducted to establish the purification mechanism. The facile method can be generally applied to purify ultrathin Au nanowires with short lengths (470 and 130 nm), which has not been realized using the conventional methods.

摘要

在超细Au纳米线的合成过程中常伴随着2 nm Au纳米颗粒这一副产物, 两者如何分离是长期存在的问题. 本研究通过使用溶剂排除法实现了高纯度(>99%)分离: 加入正己烷会导致水从最初的水-THF混合物中被排除. 被排除的水优先在纳米线表面吸附的油胺双分子层上成核, 从而将纳米线转移到水相中. 本文通过仔细地对照实验建立了纯化机理. 这种简便的方法可以用于传统方法无法实现的短的超细金纳米线(470和130 nm)的纯化.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91956109) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (2022XHSJJ002), Hangzhou Municipal Funding, Team of Innovation (TD2022004) and the Foundation of Westlake University. We thank Westlake University Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences for the facility support and technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Qian Yang  (杨倩) & Xuejun Cheng  (程雪君)

  2. Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Westlake University, Hangzhou, 310024, China

    Qian Yang  (杨倩), Ruoxu Wang  (王若徐), Xuejun Cheng  (程雪君) & Hongyu Chen  (陈虹宇)

  3. Institute of Natural Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, 310024, China

    Qian Yang  (杨倩), Ruoxu Wang  (王若徐), Xuejun Cheng  (程雪君) & Hongyu Chen  (陈虹宇)

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  1. Qian Yang  (杨倩)
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  2. Ruoxu Wang  (王若徐)
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  3. Xuejun Cheng  (程雪君)
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Contributions

Author contributions Yang Q and Chen H conceived the idea and explained the mechanism of separation, contributing to the writing and revision of the manuscript. Yang Q conducted the syntheses, separations, and characterizations of the nanomaterials. Wang R and Cheng X participated in discussions, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hongyu Chen  (陈虹宇).

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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supplementary information Supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Qian Yang is now a PhD student at Zhejiang University under the supervision of Prof. Hongyu Chen. Her research interest focuses on the synthesis and mechanism study of ultrathin nanomaterials.

Hongyu Chen received his BSc degree from the University of Science and Technology of China and then received his PhD degree from Yale University in 2004. He joined Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and was promoted to a tenured Associate Professor. In 2016, he moved back to China and joined Nanjing Tech University, where he co-founded the Institute of Advanced Synthesis and served as Executive Dean. He is now a tenured full professor at Westlake University. His research interest centers on the advancement of synthetic capability at the nanoscale, more specifically on the development of synthetic methods, understanding the underlying principles and applying these tools for novel nanostructures and new applications. See https://nanosynthesis.github.io/ for more details.

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Yang, Q., Wang, R., Cheng, X. et al. Facile purification of ultrathin Au nanowires: A solvent exclusion method. Sci. China Mater. 67, 1301–1309 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-024-2813-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-024-2813-7

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