Structural water molecules dominated p band intermediate states as a unified model for the origin on the photoluminescence emission of noble metal nanoclusters: from monolayer protected clusters to cage confined nanoclusters

Bo Peng; Jia-Feng Zhou; Meng Ding; Bing-Qian Shan; Tong Chen; Kun Zhang

doi:10.1080/14686996.2023.2210723

Structural water molecules dominated p band intermediate states as a unified model for the origin on the photoluminescence emission of noble metal nanoclusters: from monolayer protected clusters to cage confined nanoclusters

Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2023 May 15;24(1):2210723. doi: 10.1080/14686996.2023.2210723. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Bo Peng¹, Jia-Feng Zhou¹, Meng Ding¹, Bing-Qian Shan¹, Tong Chen¹, Kun Zhang^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
² Laboratoire de chimie, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Institut de Chimie de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France.
³ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Energy Storage and Novel Cell Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong, PR China.
⁴ Institute of Eco-Chongming, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

In the past several decades, noble metal nanoclusters (NMNCs) have been developed as an emerging class of luminescent materials due to their superior photo-stability and biocompatibility, but their luminous quantum yield is relatively low and the physical origin of the bright photoluminescence (PL) of NMNCs remain elusive, which limited their practical application. As the well-defined structure and composition of NMNCs have been determined, in this mini-review, the effect of each component (metal core, ligand shell and interfacial water) on their PL properties and corresponded working mechanism were comprehensively introduced, and a model that structural water molecules dominated p band intermediate state was proposed to give a unified understanding on the PL mechanism of NMNCs and a further perspective to the future developments of NMNCs by revisiting the development of our studies on the PL mechanism of NMNCs in the past decade.

Keywords: Noble metal nanoclusters; aggregation-induced emission; chirality; interfacial water; nanocatalysis; p band intermediate state; photoluminescence mechanism; structural water molecules.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation of China [22172051, 21872053, and 21573074], the National Key R&D Program of China [2021YFA1501401], the Research Funds of Happiness Flower ECNU [2020ST2203], the Open Project Program of Academician and Expert Workstation, Shanghai Curui Low-Carbon Energy Technology Co., Ltd., and the JORISS program.