Intense blue luminescence from self-assembled Au-thiolate clusters

This letter reports a new and effective way to synthesize the intense blue-emitting Au clusters. Modified with 1,6-hexanedithiol, the discrete Au particles were interconnected by the dithiol and self-assembled to clusters exhibiting luminescence at about 400 nm with a quantum yield of 15%. This value is approximately two orders of magnitude greater than that of the best made Au-thiolate clusters reported (10− 3∼10− 4). By comparing with the results in related literatures, we speculated that the unusual luminescence exhibited here might be attributed to the cage-like cluster structure which resulted from choosing the appropriate ligand.