Chemically Selective Imaging of Individual Bonds through Scanning Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy: Disulfide Bridges Linking Gold Nanoclusters

Karolina Sokołowska; Zhongyue Luan; Eero Hulkko; Christoph Rameshan; Noelia Barrabés; Vartkess A Apkarian; Tanja Lahtinen

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03496

Chemically Selective Imaging of Individual Bonds through Scanning Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy: Disulfide Bridges Linking Gold Nanoclusters

J Phys Chem Lett. 2020 Feb 6;11(3):796-799. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03496. Epub 2020 Jan 17.

Authors

Karolina Sokołowska¹, Zhongyue Luan², Eero Hulkko^{1

3}, Christoph Rameshan⁴, Noelia Barrabés⁴, Vartkess A Apkarian⁵, Tanja Lahtinen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Nanoscience Center , University of Jyväskylä , P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyväskylä , Finland.
² Department of Material Science and Engineering , University of California, Irvine , Irvine , California 92697 , United States.
³ Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering , Aalto University , P.O. BOX 11000, FI-00076 Espoo , Finland.
⁴ Faculty of Technical Chemistry, Institute of Materials Chemistry , Technische Universität Wien , 1060 Vienna , Austria.
⁵ Department of Chemistry , University of California, Irvine , Irvine , California 92697 , United States.

PMID: 31939675
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03496

Abstract

As proof-of-principle of chemically selective, spatially resolved imaging of individual bonds, we carry out electron energy-loss spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscopy instrument on atomically precise, thiolate-coated gold nanoclusters linked with 5,5'-bis(mercaptomethyl)-2,2'-bipyridine dithiol ligands. The images allow the identification of bridging disulfide bonds (R-S-S-R) between clusters, and X-ray photoelectron spectra support the finding.