Secondary ligand-induced orthogonal self-assembly of silver nanoclusters into superstructures with enhanced NIR emission

Abstract

Orthogonal self-assembly is one of the crucial strategies for forming complex and hierarchical structures in biological systems. However, creating such ordered complex structures using synthetic nanoparticles is a challenging task and requires a high degree of control over structure and multiple non-covalent interactions. In this context, nanoarchitectonics serves as an emerging tool to fabricate complex functional materials. Here, we present a secondary ligand-induced orthogonal self-assembly of atomically precise silver nanoclusters into complex superstructures. Specifically, we use Ag₁₄NCs protected with naphthalene thiol and 1,6-bis(diphenylphosphino)hexane ligands. Controlled addition of 1,6-bis(diphenylphosphino)hexane, the secondary ligand resulted in a self-assembled supracolloidal structure including helical fibers, spheres, and nanosheets. The self-assembly process is tunable by controlling the molar ratio of the ligand. The resulting superstructures exhibit enhanced NIR emission due to restricted intramolecular motion. This demonstrates that by tuning supramolecular interactions, hierarchical nanostructures with desired properties similar to biomolecules can be obtained from atomically precise building blocks.