First Steps Towards Ordered Monolayers of Liganci-Stabilized Gold Clusters

摘要

The achievement of an ordered arrangement of chemically produced quantum dots is very important in the light of future applications in nanotechnology. Most of the work carried out in this field concerns the use of semiconductor quantum dots, since itis hoped that the transition of a semiconductor from the bulk state to the nanometer region, will give rise to novel physical properties, particularly in the field of electrooptics. Apart from the difficulty of synthesizing semiconductor clusters with largely uniform size and defined structure, the main problem is to achieve a two- or three-dimensional arrangement of the particles, without them touching. Numerous attempts have been made to use zeolites or porous materials as host lattices. Polymers havealso been used to prevent a coalescence of the semiconductor particles. To date there has been no recognizable breakthrough in the practical effectiveness of these types of systems.