Polyamine-Assisted Rapid Gold Nanocluster Synthesis via Electrostatic Attraction-Facilitated Core Approaching

Thiolate-stabilized gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) are widely used in bioimaging, chemical sensing, and emitting devices because of their good solubility, great stability and versatile optical/chemical properties. However, most conventional synthetic strategies reported so far suffer long reaction time, which limits the rapid and large-scale synthesis of Au NCs. In this study, a simple electrostatic attraction-assisted core approaching strategy was developed, which accelerates the synthesis of Au NCs by introducing polyamine (hyperbranched polyetheneimine, hPEI). As a case study, the tactic was demonstrated for the rapid preparation of Au NCs based on glutathione (GSH)-HAuCl4 system within 1.5 h. The synthesis includes two steps: first, negatively charged Au(I)-GSH complex under basic condition (pH 9) was adsorbed onto hPEI surface via electrostatic attraction; second, aurophilic attraction of Au(I) centers benefited the formation of Au NCs. With such a strategy, copper nanoclusters (Cu NCs) can also be quickly prepared within 30 min.

Automated summary

A simple electrostatic attraction-assisted core approaching strategy was developed to accelerate the synthesis of Au NCs and Cu NCs by introducing polyamine(hyperbranched polyetheneimine, hPEI), achieving rapid preparation.