Real Time Monitoring of the Dynamic Intracluster Diffusion of Single Gold Atoms into Silver Nanoclusters

Alloying metal materials with heterometal atoms is an efficient way to diversify the function of materials, but in-depth understanding of the dynamic heterometallic diffusion inside the alloying materials is rather limited, especially at the atomic level. Here, we report the real-time monitoring of the dynamic diffusion process of a single gold (Au) atom into an atomically precise silver nanocluster (Ag NC), Ag-25(MHA)(18) (MHA = 6-mercaptohexanoic acid), by using in situ UV-vis absorption spectroscopy in combination with mass and tandem mass spectrometry. We found that the Au heteroatom first replaces the Ag atom at the surface Ag-2(MHA)(3) motifs of Ag-25(MHA)(18). After that, the Au atom diffuses into the surface layer of the icosahedral Ag n kernel occupies the center of the alloy NCs to form the thermodynamically stable Au@Ag-24(MHA)(18) product. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the key thermodynamic driving force is the preference of the Au heteroatom for the central site of alloy NCs. The real-time monitoring approach developed in this study could also be extended to other metal alloy systems to reveal the reaction dynamics of intracluster diffusion of heteroatoms, as well as the formation mechanisms of metal alloy nanomaterials.