In the present work we report on the study of local atomic and electronic structure of gold nanoparticles funnctionalised by thiol and amine containing long-chain ligands. The study of nanoscale atomic structure is performed by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES: X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure) and computer simulation. In consequence of the experimantally obtained data analysis and computer simulation it was obtained that strong bonding takes place when 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid is bound to the gold nanoparticles surface, forming a chemical bond Au-S 0.25 nm in length. Weaker bonding is observed when forming bond between dodecylamine and gold nanoparticles surface atom resulting in Au-N bond 0.23 nm in length. Supplementary XANES spectra analysis by means of density functional theory reveals the nature of formation of the investigated nanoscale structure.
Keywords: nanoscale structure of matter, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, XANES, density functional theory, nanoparticles functionalisation
Combined method which allows analyzing parameters of the nanoscale atomic and electronic structure of materials relying on three different methods (x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAFS), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy) was developed. The method was applied for the study of nickel oxide nanoparticles, which serve as an efficient catalyst for the artificial photosynthesis process.
Keywords: solar energy, artificial photosynthesis, NiO, Raman, x-ray diffraction, XAFS