Fluorescent gold nanoclusters encapsulated by proteins have attracted considerable attention in recent years for their unique properties as new fluorescence probes for biological sensing and imaging. However, fundamental questions, such as the nucleation sites of gold nanoclusters within proteins and the fluorescence mechanism remain unsolved. Here we present a study of the location of gold nan...

An atomic-level strategy is devised to gain insight into the origin of nanogold catalysis by using atomically monodisperse Au(n)(SR)(m) nanoclusters as well-defined catalysts for styrene oxidation. The Au(n)(SR)(m) nanoclusters are emerging as a new class of gold nanocatalyst to overcome the polydispersity of conventional nanoparticle catalysts. The unique atom-packing structure and electronic ...

This report focuses on a novel strategy for the preparation of transition metal-MoS2 hybrid nanoclusters based on a one-step, dual-target magnetron sputtering, and gas condensation process demonstrated for Ni-MoS2. Aberration-corrected STEM images coupled with EDX analysis confirms the presence of Ni and MoS2 in the hybrid nanoclusters (average diameter = 5.0 nm, Mo:S ratio = 1:1.8 ± 0.1). The ...

The organization of Ras proteins into plasma membrane nanoclusters is essential for high-fidelity signal transmission, but whether the nanoscale environments of different Ras nanoclusters regulate effector interactions is unknown. We show using high-resolution spatial mapping that Raf-1 is recruited to and retained in K-Ras-GTP nanoclusters. In contrast, Raf-1 recruited to the plasma membrane b...

In recent years, photoluminescent gold nanoclusters have attracted considerable interest in both fundamental biomedical research and practical applications. Due to their ultrasmall size, unique molecule-like optical properties, and facile synthesis gold nanoclusters have been considered very promising photoluminescent agents for biosensing, bioimaging, and targeted therapy. Yet, interaction of ...

This work presents a controlled reduction method for the selective synthesis of different sized gold nanoclusters protected by thiolate (SR = SC2H4Ph). Starting with Au(III) salt, all the syntheses of Aun(SR)m nanoclusters with (n, m) = (20, 16), (24, 20), (39, 29), and (40, 30) necessitate experimental conditions of slow stirring and slow reduction of Au(I) intermediate species. By controlling...

In this work, we dissect the performance of  two modern Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE)-based double-hybrid (DH) density functionals to predict the isotropic and anisotropic polarizabilities of water nanoclusters (H2O)n [n = 2-6]. The considered models include the cubic integrand (CI) and quadratic integrand (QI) functions as well as the spin-opposite-scaled...