Structural information of nanosized iron oxide clusters serendipitously poses the solution of long-standing problems on nanomaterials:Intra/inter surfactant and core-surfactant interaction

摘要

Detailed information on the surface structure of surfactant-protected metal oxide nanoparticles(NPs)is limited due to the difficulties in preparing samples suitable for single-crystal x-ray diffraction analysis.Herein,we report the synthesis and x-ray structural analysis of 4-biphenylcarboxylic acid-protected nanosized iron oxide,comprising 11 Fe(lll)ions,6 0 atoms,6(OH)ions,and 15 biphenylcarboxylates.The carboxylate bridges the adjacent Fe(lll)ions in the core and the core form a slightly twisted pentacapped trigonal prism.In addition,widespread intercalation between the phenyl groups on the surface of the nanoparticles is observed.