Yuan Peng, Zhang Ruihua, Selenius Elli, Ruan Pengpeng, Yao Yangrong, Zhou Yang, Malola Sami, Häkkinen Hannu, Teo Boon K, Cao Yang, Zheng Nanfeng
State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Preparation Technology of Nanomaterials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, China.
Departments of Physics and Chemistry, Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, FI-40014, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Nat Commun. 2020 May 6;11(1):2229. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16062-6.
Bottom-up design of functional device components based on nanometer-sized building blocks relies on accurate control of their self-assembly behavior. Atom-precise metal nanoclusters are well-characterizable building blocks for designing tunable nanomaterials, but it has been challenging to achieve directed assembly to macroscopic functional cluster-based materials with highly anisotropic properties. Here, we discover a solvent-mediated assembly of 34-atom intermetallic gold-silver clusters protected by 20 1-ethynyladamantanes into 1D polymers with Ag-Au-Ag bonds between neighboring clusters as shown directly by the atomic structure from single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Density functional theory calculations predict that the single crystals of cluster polymers have a band gap of about 1.3 eV. Field-effect transistors fabricated with single crystals of cluster polymers feature highly anisotropic p-type semiconductor properties with ≈1800-fold conductivity in the direction of the polymer as compared to cross directions, hole mobility of ≈0.02 cm V s, and an ON/OFF ratio up to ≈4000. This performance holds promise for further design of functional cluster-based materials with highly anisotropic semiconducting properties.
基于纳米级构建块的功能器件组件的自下而上设计依赖于对其自组装行为的精确控制。原子精确的金属纳米团簇是设计可调谐纳米材料的可良好表征的构建块,但实现定向组装成具有高度各向异性性质的宏观功能团簇基材料一直具有挑战性。在这里,我们发现由20个1-乙炔基金刚烷保护的34原子金属间金银团簇通过溶剂介导组装成一维聚合物,相邻团簇之间具有Ag-Au-Ag键,这直接由单晶X射线衍射分析的原子结构显示。密度泛函理论计算预测团簇聚合物的单晶具有约1.3 eV的带隙。用团簇聚合物单晶制造的场效应晶体管具有高度各向异性的p型半导体特性,与横向相比,在聚合物方向上的电导率约为1800倍,空穴迁移率约为0.02 cm V s,开/关比高达约4000。这种性能为进一步设计具有高度各向异性半导体特性的功能团簇基材料带来了希望。