Alkynyl and halogen co-protected (AuAg)44 nanoclusters: a comparative study on their optical absorbance, structure, and hydrogen evolution performance

Yun Tang; Fang Sun; Xiaoshuang Ma; Lubing Qin; Guanyu Ma; Qing Tang; Zhenghua Tang

doi:10.1039/d2dt00634k

Alkynyl and halogen co-protected (AuAg)₄₄ nanoclusters: a comparative study on their optical absorbance, structure, and hydrogen evolution performance

Dalton Trans. 2022 May 24;51(20):7845-7850. doi: 10.1039/d2dt00634k.

Authors

Yun Tang¹, Fang Sun², Xiaoshuang Ma¹, Lubing Qin¹, Guanyu Ma¹, Qing Tang², Zhenghua Tang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Surface Chemistry of Energy Materials, New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, P. R. China. zhht@scut.edu.cn.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Chongqing University, Chongqing, 401331, P. R. China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Supramolecular Coordination Materials and Applications, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China.

PMID: 35546313
DOI: 10.1039/d2dt00634k

Abstract

We report the synthesis, structure, and electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of two alkynyl and halogen coprotected AuAg alloy nanoclusters, namely Au₂₄Ag₂₀(^tBuPh-CC)₂₄Cl₂ (NC 1 for short) and Au₂₂Ag₂₂(^tBuCC)₁₆Br_3.28Cl_2.72 (NC 2 for short). Single crystal X-ray structural analysis revealed that the two nanoclusters possess a rather similar core@shell@shell keplerate metal core configuration to M₁₂@M₂₀@M₁₂ with the main difference in the outermost shell (Au₁₂vs. Au₁₀Ag₂). Interestingly, such a subtle difference in the two-metal-atoms results in different optical absorbance features and drastically different HER performances. Both NCs have excellent long-term stability for the HER, but NC 1 possesses superior activity to NC 2, and density functional theory calculations disclosed that the binding energy of hydrogen to form the key *H intermediate for NC 1 is much lower and hence it adopts a more energetically feasible HER pathway.