New findings for the composition and structure of Ni nanoparticles protected with organomercaptan molecules.

Here we explore the synthesis of alkanethiol-coated Ni NPs following the one-phase reaction method by Brust et al. The reduction of NiCl2 with NaBH4 in the presence of dodecanethiol (C12SH) yields a complex product that is difficult to identify as illustrated in the figure of merit. We synthesized Ni(II) dodecanethiolate (C12S) (without the addition of NaBH4) for comparison and performed an exhaustive characterization with TEM, HR-TEM, AFM, MFM, XPS, XRD, UV-vis, magnetism, and FT-IR. It is found that the organic coating is not quite a well-organized self-assembled monolayer (SAM) surrounding the Ni cluster as previously reported. XPS and XRD data show slight differences between both syntheses; however, Ni(II) thiolate appears to be more stable than reduced Ni when exposed to ambient air, indicating the propensity of metallic Ni to oxidize. It has been shown that irradiating with TEM electrons over various metal thiolates leads to nanoparticle formation. We irradiated over Ni(II) thiolate and observed no evidence of NP formation whereas irradiating a reduced Ni sample exhibited an ~3.0 nm nanoparticle diameter. Magnetism studies showed a difference between both samples, indicating ferromagnetic character for the reduced Ni sample. According to our results, the product of the synthesis is comprised of ultrasmall metallic clusters embedded in some form of Ni(II) C12S. In this work, we open a discussion of the chemical nature of the core and the shell in the synthesis of Ni NPs protected with organomercaptan molecules.

Liquid-liquid microextraction based on a dispersion of Pd nanoparticles combined with ETAAS for sensitive Hg determination in water samples.

A novel and highly efficient microextraction methodology based on the use of palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) was developed for the preconcentration and determination of Hg in water samples. Selective separation of the analyte was achieved by application of dodecanethiolate-coated Pd monolayer-protected clusters (C12S Pd MPCs) in a liquid-liquid microextraction technique (LLME). A volume of 20 µL of toluene phase containing C12S Pd MPCs was used for extraction and final phase was injected in an electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometer (ETAAS) for Hg detection. The effects of different variables, such as sample volume, extraction time, and NPs dispersion volume were carefully studied. A sensitivity enchancement factor of 95 was obtained under optimal experimental conditions. Furthermore, low detection limit (7.5 ng L(-1)) and good precision (relative standard deviation of 4.1% at 0.25 µg L(-1) Hg and n=10) were achieved. The proposed method can be considered as a rapid, cost-effective, and efficient alternative for Hg determination in water samples like river, lake, mineral and tap water.