Au(degrees)-nanoparticles: control size and morphology stabilized by tripodal phosphine based ligands and their antimicrobial activity.

Metal nanoparticles have attracted great attention due to their potential applications in the fields like electronics, opto-electronics, bioscience, catalysis, etc. New ligands 1,1,1-tris (diphenylphosphinomethyl) ethane [CH3C(CH2PPh2)3] 1 and 1,1,1-tris-(diphenylphosphino methyl) ethane trisulphide [CH3C(CH2P(S)Ph2)3] 2 for stabilization of Au(degrees)-nanoparticles having small core diameter were prepared. The Au(degrees)-nanoparticles are more active against Gram(+) bacteria, e.g., Staphylococcus aureus than Gram(-) bacteria. Among the two Au(degrees)-nanoparticles, the ligand 1 stabilized particles shows higher activity.