Observing atomically precise nanocluster aggregates in solution by mass photometry

Jayoti Roy; Ila Marathe; Vicki Wysocki; Thalappil Pradeep

doi:10.1039/d4cc00363b

Observing atomically precise nanocluster aggregates in solution by mass photometry

Chem Commun (Camb). 2024 Jun 25;60(52):6655-6658. doi: 10.1039/d4cc00363b.

Authors

Jayoti Roy¹, Ila Marathe², Vicki Wysocki², Thalappil Pradeep^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ DST Unit of Nanoscience (DST UNS) & Thematic Unit of Excellence (TUE), Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), Chennai 600036, India. [email protected].
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Native Mass Spectrometry Guided Structural Biology Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
³ International Centre for Clean Water, 2nd Floor, B-Block, IIT Madras Research Park, Kanagam Road, Taramani, Chennai 600113, India.

PMID: 38856910
DOI: 10.1039/d4cc00363b

Abstract

We report the first mass photometric characterization of nanoaggregates of atomically precise nanoclusters (NCs) in solution. The differently-sized nanoaggregates of silver-gold alloy NCs, [Ag_11-xAu_x(DPPB)₅Cl₅O₂]²⁺ [x = 1-5 and DPPB = 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphino)butane], formed in solution, were examined by mass photometry (MP) with a protein calibration. In addition, we conducted MP studies of varying solvent composition to understand the structural evolution of nanoaggregates. The masses of nanoaggregates were correlated to structures of 15 to 50 nm diameter observed in cryo-electron microscopy.