NHC stabilized copper nanoparticles via reduction of a copper NHC complex

Robert Richstein; Constantin Eisen; Lingcong Ge; Monnaya Chalermnon; Florian Mayer; Bernhard K Keppler; Jia Min Chin; Michael R Reithofer

doi:10.1039/d3cc02745g

NHC stabilized copper nanoparticles via reduction of a copper NHC complex

Chem Commun (Camb). 2023 Aug 8;59(64):9738-9741. doi: 10.1039/d3cc02745g.

Authors

Robert Richstein¹, Constantin Eisen¹, Lingcong Ge¹, Monnaya Chalermnon¹, Florian Mayer², Bernhard K Keppler¹, Jia Min Chin³, Michael R Reithofer¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Straße 42, Vienna 1090, Austria. michael.reithofer@univie.ac.at.
² Institute of Materials Chemistry and Research, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währinger Straße 42, Vienna 1090, Austria.
³ Institute of Inorganic Chemistry - Functional Materials, University of Vienna, Währinger Straße 42, Vienna 1090, Austria. jiamin.chin@univie.ac.at.

Abstract

The bottom-up synthesis of plasmonic NHC@CuNPs from common starting reagents, via the formation of the synthetically accessible NHC-Cu(I)-Br complex and its reduction by NH₃·BH₃ is reported. The resulting NHC@CuNPs have been characterized in detail by XPS, TEM and NMR spectroscopy. The stability of NHC@CuNPs was investigated under both inert and ambient conditions using UV-Vis analysis. While the NHC@CuNPs are stable under inert conditions for an extended period of time, the NPs oxidize under air to form Cu_xO with concomitant release of the stabilizing NHC ligand.