Fullerene-Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles: Electrochemical and Spectroscopic Properties

Fullerene (C60)-tethered gold nanoparticles were synthesized by the coupling of the fullerene molecules with peripheral amine moieties on the particle surface. The particle composition was determined by thermogravimetric analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy. The resulting particles exhibited unique optical and electrochemical properties. UV−visible measurements showed that the C60 characteristic absorption remained practically invariant whereas the fluorescence demonstrated rather drastic enhancement of emission efficiency as compared to the behaviors of C60 monomers. Tethering of C60 on the particle surface has virtually no effect on the particle molecular capacitance when C60 is in neutral state, whereas when C60 is electroreduced, the particle effective capacitance increases drastically, reflected in the quantized capacitance charging measurements. The strong affinity of C60 to amine moieties was also exploited to assemble multilayers of C60 and gold particle nanocomposite structures. Quartz crystal microba...