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Application-Focused Investigation of Monovalent Metal Complexes for Nanoparticle Synthesis

Over the last 20 years, there has occurred an increase in the number, scope, and impact of nanomaterials projects. By leveraging the Surface Plasmon Resonance of metallic nanoparticles for labelling, sensing, and treatment, researchers have demonstrated the versatile utility of these nanomaterials in medicine. The literature provides evidence of use of simple, well-known chemistry for nanomaterials synthesis when the focus is new applications of nanomaterials. A case in point, is the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles, whereby HAuCl4, CuCl2, Cu(acac)2, and AgNO3 are typically employed as nanoparticle precursors. Unfortunately, the use of these precursors limits the number of applications available to these materials - particularly for AuNPs in medicine, where the byproducts of nanoparticle synthesis (most often surface-adsorbed reductants, toxic stabilizers, and growth directors) cause nanoparticles to fail clinical trials. Despite the several thousand publications detailing the advancements in nanoparticle therapeutics, as of 2017, there were only 50 FDA-approved nanoparticle formulations. Less than 10 were based on metallic nanoparticles. This is a problem because many of these nanoparticle therapeutics demonstrate potent cell killing ability and labeling of cells. A solution to this problem may be the use of weakly coordinated, monovalent metal complexes, which require only one electron to reduce them to their metallic state. Further, by designing nanoparticle syntheses around these monovalent complexes, we can employ weaker, environmentally friendly stabilizers. This strategy also forgoes the use of exogenous reducing agents, because the monovalent complexes can be reduced and stabilized by one reagent. Herein we investigate the use of Au(Me2S)Cl, [Cu(MeCN)4]BF4, and AgBF4 with green stabilizers to synthesize a variety of nanomaterials. We find that a range of sizes of spherical particles, as well as a range of sizes of gold triangular prisms can be synthesized by using techniques that follow this strategy.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1538771
Date08 1900
CreatorsKamras, Brian Leon
ContributorsSlaughter, LeGrande M., Simmons, Denise P., Marpu, Sreekar B., Cundari, Thomas, Acree, William E. (William Eugene), Kelber, Jeffry A.
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatxii, 118 pages, Text
RightsUse restricted to UNT Community, Kamras, Brian Leon, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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