Progress of the Synthesis of High-Nuclearity Ag/S Nanoclusters

The high-nuclearity silver nanoclusters protected by thiol ligands not only have beautiful structures and attractive functionalities, but also have broad application prospects in photoluminescence, biosensing and imaging, nanomaterials etc. However, the precise control of the size and structure of high-nuclearity Ag/S nanoclusters remains a great challenge. Therefore, feasible synthetic strategies to construct high-nuclearity Ag/S nanoclusters have always been the focus of attention. In recent years, with the development of synthetic approaches and characterization techniques, significant achievements have been made in the synthesis and functionality of high-nuclearity Ag/S nanoclusters. In this review,the general synthesis methods of high-nuclearity Ag/S nanoclusters containing 20 or more silver centers(direct reduction method, anion-templated method, ligand exchange method) were introduced and summarized, and structures of some high-nuclearity Ag/S nanoclusters were discussed. Finally, some prospects on the trend of future research in this respect are given.