Vibrational spectroscopic characterization of 4-acylamidobenzenethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticles

A simple preparation method of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with 4-acylamidobenzenethiol derivative (BD) was improved to obtain the larger size of AuNPs which exhibited localized surface plasmon resonance. The spectroscopic characterizations of two kinds of BD-stabilized AuNPs were carried out by means of ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopy in order to clarify the conformation and orientation of BDs adsorbed on AuNPs. The relation between the stability of AuNPs and the adsorbed states of BDs were also discussed. The average sizes of the resulting AuNPs were 18 nm for BD1 and 30 nm for BD2, respectively. It was found that the BD1-capped AuNPs formed large aggregates. The results of vibrational spectroscopy revealed that loosely packed self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of BD1 molecules was formed on the surface of the AuNPs; on the other hand, densely packed SAM was formed in the case of BD2. We concluded the difference behavior between the two types of molecules was caused by the functional groups. The sulfuryl groups of BD2 induced highly ordered SAM and suppressed aggregate formation of AuNPs.