On the photocatalysis evolution of heteroatom-doped AgM nanoclusters.

Atomically precise metal nanoclusters doped with one or more heteroatom of other metals have exhibited extraordinary catalytic properties. Here we report a series of thiolate-protected AgM (M is dopant Ni, Pd and Pt) nanoclusters that adopt a similar structural framework like a distorted hexahedron, in which four Ag atoms are located at the midpoints of four side edges and two metal heteroatoms reside on the centres of the top and the bottom planes. The opposite orders of the catalytic performances of the three catalysts for the photocatalytic degradation of the methyl orange and rhodamine B dyes are found, which is attributed to two different types of inter-molecular recombination mechanisms.