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Zhuang S, Chen D, Ng WP, Liu D, Liu LJ, Sun MY, Nawaz T, Wu X, Zhang Y, Li Z, Huang YL, Yang J, Yang J, He J. Phosphinous Acid-Phosphinito Tetra-Icosahedral Au 52 Nanoclusters for Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction. JACS AU 2022; 2:2617-2626. [PMID: 36465536 PMCID: PMC9709937 DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.2c00517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Revised: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
While the formation of superatomic nanoclusters by the three-dimensional assembly of icosahedral units was predicted in 1987, the synthesis and structural determination of such clusters have proven to be incredibly challenging. Herein, we employ a mixed-ligand strategy to prepare phosphinous acid-phosphinito gold nanocluster Au52(HOPPh2)8(OPPh2)4(TBBT)16 with a tetra-icosahedral kernel. Unlike expected, each icosahedral Au13 unit shares one vertex gold atom with two adjacent units, resulting in a "puckered" ring shape with a nuclearity of 48 in the kernel. The phosphinous acid-phosphinito ligand set, which consists of two phosphinous acids and one phosphinito motif, has strong intramolecular hydrogen bonds; the π-π stacking interactions between the phosphorus- and sulfur-based ligands provide additional stabilization to the kernel. Highly stable Au52(HOPPh2)8(OPPh2)4(TBBT)16 serves as an effective electrocatalyst in the oxygen reduction reaction. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the phosphinous acid-phosphinito ligands provide the most active sites in the electrochemical catalysis, with O* formation being the rate-determining step.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shengli Zhuang
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
- State
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry, The
University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong 999077, P. R. China
| | - Dong Chen
- State
Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China
| | - Wai-Pan Ng
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Dongyi Liu
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Li-Juan Liu
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Meng-Ying Sun
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Tehseen Nawaz
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Xia Wu
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Yao Zhang
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Zekun Li
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Yong-Liang Huang
- Department
of Medicinal Chemistry, Shantou University
Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong 515041, P. R. China
| | - Jun Yang
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
| | - Jun Yang
- State
Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China
| | - Jian He
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, P. R. China
- State
Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry, The
University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong 999077, P. R. China
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