Straightforward light-driven synthesis of ultrasmall, water-soluble monolayer-protected platinum nanoparticles

A facile synthetic methodology to obtain, in one-step, ultrasmall (ca. 1 nm) and water-soluble carboxylate-terminated platinum nanoparticles is reported. It involves visible light as a reaction trigger and platinum acetylacetonate and thioglycolic acid as the only chemical reactants. These nanoparticles are stable for weeks and can be easily transferred into organic solvents such as toluene, chloroform or dichloromethane by using the cationic surfactant tetraoctylammonium bromide as the phase-transfer agent. To the best of our knowledge, they are among the smallest water-soluble platinum nanoparticles prepared to date and represent the first example of preparation of thiol-protected platinum nanoparticles exclusively driven by light. ((c) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2006). RI Sortino, Salvatore/E-4684-2011