Item

Abstract

Naked and molecular encapsulated Au nanoparticles with a diameter of 3 nm were prepared on top of Si in order to elucidate the effect of the molecules on the electronic structures of Au nanoparticles. We have found that the naked particles showed the finite densities of states at the Fermi level while the molecular encapsulated particles exhibited the edge being away from the Fermi level, indicating that the naked and molecular encapsulated Au particles should show metallic and nonmetallic features, respectively. Furthermore, because the naked Au nanoparticles became nonmetallic upon the particles adsorbing the molecules, the highly occupied states of the molecules might be hybridized with the valence states of Au particles, resulting in nonmetallic properties of the molecular encapsulated nanoparticles in the present system.