AMP_04_May_June_2021_Digital_Edition

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 1 1 1 COPPER NANOCLUSTERS Using rational design, researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, devel- oped neatly stacking cuboid copper nanomaterials. The nanoclusters are a new member of an exotic nanomaterial family that has shown many promising properties but remained difficult to make. Copper nanoclusters, which are of an atomically precise structure, are among the few copper nanomaterials that can provide such insights at the atomic level because their total struc- ture can be determined by single-crys- tal x-ray diffraction. The team set out to make a hydro- gen-rich polyhydrido copper nanoclus- ter (PCN). Based on previously synthe- sized PCN structures, they predicted that triphenylphosphine, with its rigid conical structure, would help to create a new nanocluster with a cuboid shape. The dark orange block-like crystals proved to be a novel PCN structure with Courtesy of ACS Materials Lett. 2021, 3, 1, 90-99. the predicted cuboid shape. Surrounding a core of 23 copper atoms were eight triphenyl- phosphine groups, forming the eight corners of the cube. Each dark orange crystal consisted of multiple cuboid nanoclus- ters, stacked neatly together in perfectly aligned rows and col- umns. Despite the team’s dis- coveries, copper nanocluster research is still in its infancy. www.kaust.edu.sa/en.