Metallic clusters are very important for technological applications, owing to their fascinating and unusual properties. However, advances in this field are inhibited by the difficulty of preparing monodisperse clusters in macroscopic quantities. For this purpose, different chemical approaches have been tried by using dendrimers, thiol cappings, microemulsions, and vesicles. Most of these methods are based on well-developed techniques used for the preparation of monodisperse nanoparticles. A classical procedure for the preparation of nanoparticles is the microemulsion method. With this method, it is possible to obtain nanodroplets of water dispersed in oil by using surfactants and/or amphiphilic block copolymers. These nanodroplets are used as nanoreactors to obtain nanoparticles with well-defined sizes.

Financial support from the MEC, Spain (MAT2005-07554-C02-01, NAN2004-09133-C03-02, NAN2004-09195-C04-01, CTQ2005-03222/BQU, and NanoBioMed CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010), the Xunta de Galicia, Spain (PGDIT03PXIC20907PN), as well as the European Union (037465-FLUOROMAG, EU-FP6 Framework Programme LIFESCIHEALTH-6) is acknowledged.

5 pages, 6 figures.-- PMID: 17943930 [PubMed].-- Supplementary information (figures S1-S5) available at: http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2002/2007/z702427_s.pdf

Peer reviewed