Aggregation Behavior of Ligand-Protected Au9 Clusters on Sputtered Atomic Layer Deposition TiO2

[Au-9(PPh3)(8))] (NO3)(3) (Au-9) clusters were deposited onto sputtered ALD titania surfaces. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to determine the height and distributions of the Au-9 clusters over the titania surface fabricated using atomic layer deposition (ALD). Synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to derive information about the degree of agglomeration of the Au-9 clusters due to the annealing process. Both AFM and XPS show that the Au-9 clusters deposited on ALD titania are partially agglomerated after annealing. Deposition of the [Au-9(PPh3)(8))](NO3)(3) dusters on sputtered ALD titania is compared with deposition of the same cluster on titania nanosheets of previous work.