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Understanding the molecular mechanisms governing nanoparticle-membrane interactions is of prime importance for drug delivery and biomedical applications. Neutron reflectometry (NR) experiments are combined with atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the interaction between cationic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and model lipid membranes composed of a mixture of zwitterionic di-stearoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DSPC) and anionic di-stearoyl-phosphatidylglycerol (DSPG). MD simulations show that the interaction between AuNPs and a pure DSPC lipid bilayer is modulated by a free energy barrier. This can be overcome by increasing temperature, which promotes an irreversible AuNP incorporation into the lipid bilayer. NR experiments confirm the encapsulation of the AuNPs within the lipid bilayer at temperatures around 55 °C. In contrast, the AuNP adsorption is weak and impaired by heating for a DSPC-DSPG (3:1) lipid bilayer. These results demonstrate that both the lipid charge and the temperature play pivotal roles in AuNP-membrane interactions. Furthermore, NR experiments indicate that the (negative) DSPG lipids are associated with lipid extraction upon AuNP adsorption, which is confirmed by coarse-grained MD simulations as a lipid-crawling effect driving further AuNP aggregation. Overall, the obtained detailed molecular view of the interaction mechanisms sheds light on AuNP incorporation and membrane destabilization., (© 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Energetics and dynamical pathways for hydrogen peroxide formation from H(2) and O(2) bound to neutral gold dimers and tetramers have been investigated by applying several strategies: T = 0 K geometry optimizations, constrained Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations at T = 300 K and metadynamics at T = 300 K. The competing reaction channels for water and hydrogen peroxide formation have been found and characterized. In each case, the reaction barriers for Au cluster catalyzed proton transfer are less than 1 eV. Water formation is a competitive reaction channel, and the relative weight of H(2)O and H(2)O(2) products may depend on the chosen Au cluster size. Dynamic simulations demonstrate the significance of the geometric fluxionality of small catalytic Au clusters. These results indicate that neutral Au clusters could work as catalysts in aerobic H(2)O(2) formation in ambient conditions.

Finely dispersed nanometre-scale gold particles are known to catalyse several oxidation reactions in aerobic, ambient conditions. The catalytic activity has been explained by various complementary mechanisms, including support effects, particle-size-dependent metal–insulator transition, charging effects, frontier orbital interactions and geometric fluxionality. We show, by considering a series of robust and structurally well-characterized ligand-protected gold clusters with diameters between 1.2 and 2.4 nm, that electronic quantum size effects, particularly the magnitude of the so-called HOMO–LUMO energy gap, has a decisive role in binding oxygen to the nano-catalyst in an activated form. This can lead to the oxidation reaction 2CO + O2 → 2CO2 with low activation barriers. Binding of dioxygen is significant only for the smallest particles with a metal core diameter clearly below 2 nm. Our results suggest a potentially viable route to practical applications using ligand-protected gold clusters for green chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the structure of thio-group(RS)-protected gold nanoparticles using the Density Functional Theory for which experimental determination remains elusive. The physiochemical properties of [Au25(RS)18] and its stability is determined. It is mentioned that the proposed structure Au2(RS)18 is found to be a compact Au13 core protected by sox [(MeS)3Au2] complexes.