Raman characterization of metal-alkanethiolates

Raman spectroscopy has been used to characterize neat alkanethiol and vario us metal-alkanethiolate materials. Neat alkanethiol gives rise to two C-S s tretching peaks at 662 and 735 cm(-1), assigned to gauche and trans rotamer s respectively. Only one C-S stretching peak positioned at 725 cm(-1) was f ound from CuC12 and AgC12 layered compounds, implying the absence of gauche rotamer near the thiolate group. An all-trans conformation of the chain is inferred from the peak position values of the C-C stretching modes of CuC1 2 and AgC12 layered compounds. Gauche rotamers were observed in silver coll oids capped with alkanethiolate. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.