Concomitant Near‐Infrared Photothermy and Photoluminescence of Rod‐Shaped Au<sub>52</sub>(PET)<sub>32</sub> and Au<sub>66</sub>(PET)<sub>38</sub> Synthesized Concurrently
Wanmiao Gu, Yue Zhou, Wenying Wang, Qing You, Wentao Fan, Yan Zhao, Guo‐Qing Bian, Runguo Wang, Liang Fang, Nan Yan, Nan Xia, Lingwen Liao, Zhikun Wu
Abstract
Abstract Gold nanoclusters exhibiting concomitant photothermy (PT) and photoluminescence (PL) under near‐infrared (NIR) light irradiation are rarely reported, and some fundamental issues remain unresolved for such materials. Herein, we concurrently synthesized two novel rod‐shaped Au nanoclusters, Au 52 (PET) 32 and Au 66 (PET) 38 (PET = 2‐phenylethanethiolate), and precisely revealed that their kernels were 4 × 4 × 6 and 5 × 4 × 6 face‐centered cubic (fcc) structures, respectively, based on the numbers of Au layers in the [100], [010], and [001] directions. Following the structural growth mode from Au 52 (PET) 32 to Au 66 (PET) 38 , we predicted six more novel nanoclusters. The concurrent synthesis provides rational comparison of the two nanoclusters on the stability, absorption, emission and photothermy, and reveals the aspect ratio‐related properties. An interesting finding is that the two nanoclusters exhibit concomitant PT and PL under 785 nm light irradiation, and the PT and PL are in balance, which was explained by the qualitative evaluation of the radiative and non‐radiative rates. The ligand effects on PT and PL were also investigated.