Jp. Wilcoxon et Sa. Craft, LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF INORGANIC NANOCLUSTERS, Nanostructured materials, 9(1-8), 1997, pp. 85-88
We describe the application of the techniques of high pressure liquid
chromatography (HPLC) to analyze and characterize various types of ino
rganic nanoclusters. Both metal and semiconductor nanoclusters were gr
own in inverse micelles and we demonstrate how the nanoclusters can be
separated from the surfactants and other byproducts of the reaction b
y using a variety of HPLC columns. We also discuss passivation of the
cluster surface to prevent aggregation. The HPLC columns separate the
clusters based upon a combination of size exclusion and chemical affin
ity mechanisms and the optical properties of the purified clusters are
determined on-line using a variety of detectors. These include a phot
odiode array for collecting absorbance spectra, a fluorescence detecto
r to monitor luminesence, and a conductivity detector to monitor surfa
ce charge on the nanoclusters. We illustrate the analysis of nanoclust
ers using HPLC by showing data from semiconductor Si, MoS2 nanocluster
s and Au nanoclusters. An extremely novel luminesence was observed fro
m very small metal nanoclusters. (C) 1997 Acta Metallurgica Inc.