Frechet-type dendrons-capped gold clusters

Numerous reports have focused on the poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer-capped gold nanoparticles. However, gold nanoclusters capped by the Frochet-type dendron are less investigated. In this paper, different sizes of gold nanoparticles stabilized by thiol-terminated generation 1 (G1) Frechet-type dendrons were synthesized according to the Brust protocol. The optical, electronic properties and thermal stability of the dendrons-stabilized gold nanoparticles were characterized by UV-vis, XPS and DSC, respectively. The size-controlled dendrons-stabilized gold nanoparticles are promising nanoscopic building blocks in the fabrication of supramolecular architectures of next generation of nanodevices and are of great research interested in the bottom-up assembly. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.