The synthesis of stable and isolable iridium nanoparticles with an average core size of ∼1.2 ± 0.3 nm was achieved by employing sodium S-dodecylthiosulfate as a ligand precursor during the modified Brust-Schiffrin reaction. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the isolated Ir nanoparticles revealed a high degree of monodispersity. Further characterizations with 1H NMR, FT-IR, UV-vis spectr...

Gold nanoparticle monolayers provide convenient templates to study charge transport in organic molecules beyond single junction techniques. Conductance is reported to increase by several orders of magnitude following immersion of alkanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticle monolayers in a solution containing conjugated thiol-functionalized molecules. Typically, this observation is attributed to mo...

Many biomaterials are designed to regulate the interactions between artificial and natural surfaces. However, when materials are inserted through the cell membrane itself the interface formed between the interior edge of the membrane and the material surface is not well understood and poorly controlled. Here we demonstrate that by replicating the nanometer-scale hydrophilic-hydrophobic-hydrophi...

Equilibrium structures and thermodynamic properties of dodecanethiol self-assembled monolayers on small (Au140) and larger (Au1289) gold nanocrystallites were investigated with the use of molecular dynamics simulations. Compact passivating monolayers are formed on the (111) and (100) facets of the nanocrystallites, with adsorption site geometries differing from those found on extended flat Au(1...

The interactions of recombinant juvenile hormone binding protein (His8-rJHBP) with juvenile hormones (JHs), methoprene and farnesol have been studied with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The protein was immobilized on the dodecanethiol (DDT) modified gold electrodes. Each step of electrode modification has been confirmed with cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance s...

Motivated by recent drop-drying experiments of Au nanoparticle (NP) island self-assembly, we investigate the structure, diffusion, and binding of dodecanethiol-coated Au NPs adsorbed at the toluene-vapor interface using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations as well as analytical calculations. For a 6 nm core diameter NP our results indicate the existence of significant intermixing between the lig...

A monolayer of dodecanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticles changed into two-dimensional and three-dimensional self-organized structures by annealing at 323 K. Subsequent crystal growth of gold nanoparticles occurred. Thiol molecules, although chemisorbed, form relatively unstable bonds with the gold surface; a few thiols desorbed from the surface and oxidized to disulfides at 323 K, because the...