Synthesis, structure and gas-phase reactivity of the mixed silver hydride borohydride nanocluster [Ag3(μ3-H)(μ3-BH4)LPh3]BF4 (LPh = bis(diphenylphosphino)methane)

A Zavras; A Ariafard; GN Khairallah; JM White; RJ Mulder; AJ Canty; RAJ O'Hair

Journal article

Synthesis, structure and gas-phase reactivity of the mixed silver hydride borohydride nanocluster [Ag3(μ3-H)(μ3-BH4)LPh3]BF4 (LPh = bis(diphenylphosphino)methane)

A Zavras, A Ariafard, GN Khairallah, JM White, RJ Mulder, AJ Canty, RAJ O'Hair

Nanoscale | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1039/c5nr05690j

Abstract

Borohydrides react with silver salts to give products that span multiple scales ranging from discrete mononuclear compounds through to silver nanoparticles and colloids. The cluster cations [Ag3(H)(BH4)L3]+ are observed upon electrospray ionization mass spectrometry of solutions containing sodium borohydride, silver(i) tetrafluoroborate and bis(dimethylphosphino)methane (LMe) or bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (LPh). By adding NaBH4 to an acetonitrile solution of AgBF4 and LPh, cooled to ca. -10 °C, we have been able to isolate the first mixed silver hydride borohydride nanocluster, [Ag3(μ3-H)(μ3-BH4)LPh3]BF4, and structurally characterise it via X-ray crystallography. Combined gas-phase exper..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Jonathan White Author

Richard O'Hair Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

We thank the ARC for financial support via grants DP1096134 (to GNK) and DP150101388 (to RAJ and AJC). The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous allocation of computing time from the University of Tasmania and the National Computing Infrastructure. We thank Assoc. Prof. Paul Donnelly for useful discussions.