Controlling the bimetal nanoparticle with atomic monodispersity is still challenging. Herein, a monodisperse bimetal nanoparticle is synthesized in 25% yield (on gold atom basis) by an unusual replacement method. The formula of the nanoparticle is determined to be Au24Hg1(PET)18 (PET: phenylethanethiolate) by high-resolution ESI-MS spectrometry in conjunction with multiple analyses including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). X-ray single-crystal diffraction reveals that the structure of Au24Hg1(PET)18 remains the structural framework of Au25(PET)18 with one of the outer-shell gold atoms replaced by one Hg atom, which is further supported by theoretical calculations and experimental results as well. Importantly, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) is first employed to estimate the highest occupied molecular orbit (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit (LUMO) energies of Au24Hg1(PET)18 based on previous calculations.

Alloy nanoparticles with atomic monodispersity is of importance for some fundamental research (e.g., the investigation of active sites). However, the controlled preparation of alloy nanoparticles with atomic monodispersity has long been a major challenge. Herein, for the first time a unique method, antigalvanic reduction (AGR), is introduced to synthesize atomically monodisperse Au25Ag2(SC2H4Ph)18 in high yield (89%) within 2 min. Interestingly, the two silver atoms in Au25Ag2(SC2H4Ph)18 do not replace the gold atoms in the precursor particle Au25(SC2H4Ph)18 but collocate on Au25, which was supported by experimental and calculated results. Also, the two silver atoms are active to play roles in stabilizing the alloy nanoparticle, triggering the nanoparticle fluorescence and catalyzing the hydrolysis of 1,3-diphenylprop-2-ynyl acetate.

The numerical solutions of binary-phase (0, π) gratings for one-dimensional array illuminators up to 32 are presented. Some fabrication errors, which are due to position-quantization errors, phase errors, dilation (or erosion) errors, and the side-slope error, are calculated and show that even-number array illuminators are superior to odd-number array illuminators when these fabrication errors are considered. One (0, π) binary-phase, 8 × 16 array illuminator made with the wet-chemical-etching method is given in this paper.