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Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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2. Steric Stabilization and a Soft RepulsionAttractive van der Waals forces due to dipole-induced dipole interactionsare relatively strong for metal nanocrystals due to the high polarizabilityof the cores, despite their small size and relatively thick organic coating.[For example, dodecanethiol (C 12 thiol) extends approximately 1.5 nm intosolution; therefore, the C 12 -coating surrounding a 5-nm-diameter nanocrystal,for example, occupies 75% of the total volume occupied <strong>by</strong> the core andligand!] The van der Waals attraction A vdW , between two spheres of equalradius R, separated with a center-to-center distance of d and a Hamakerconstant A [45] isA vdW ¼ A 2R 26 d 2 4R 2 þ 2R2d 2 þ ln d 2 4R 2 d 2The Hamaker constant reflects the strength of the core–core attraction anddepends on the polarizability of the sphere and the dispersing medium. TheHamaker constants for metals interacting across a vacuum have been determined.For example, the tabulated value for bulk silver is A 11 = 2.185 eV[46]. To calculate the Hamaker constant of the nanocrystals dispersed in differentsolvents (denoted as A 131 , where the subscript 1 represents the metaland the subscript 3 represents the solvent), the following relationship can beused:pA 131 cffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2A 11A 33where A 11 is for the metal interacting across vacuum and A 33 is for the solventinteracting across vacuum. The value for A 33 can be estimated using asimplification of Lifshitz theory [46]:A 33 ¼ 3 4 kT q 3 q 2vacuumþ 3ht eðn 2 3 n 2 vacuump Þ2q 3 þ q vacuum 16 ffiffi2 ðn23þ n 2 vacuum Þ3=2where e is the dielectric constant, n is the refractive index, h is Planck’sconstant, k is Boltzmann’s constant, T is temperature, t e is the maximumelectronic ultraviolet adsorption frequency typically taken to be 3 10 15 s 1 ,and e vacuum = 1 and n vacuum = 1.The typical Hamaker constant for silver in conventional solvents underambient conditions such as hexane is A 131 = 0.91 eV. This is very high,considering, for example, that A for polystyrene in water is 0.087 eV and is0.125 eV for mica in water. Therefore, despite their small nanometer size,values for A vdW can be significant compared to kT.The adsorbed capping ligands provide a short-range steric barrier toparticle aggregation. As two nanocrystal cores capped with stabilizing ligands<strong>Copyright</strong> <strong>2004</strong> <strong>by</strong> <strong>Marcel</strong> <strong>Dekker</strong>, <strong>Inc</strong>. <strong>All</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> <strong>Reserved</strong>.

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