Patent ID: 7901656

Claim:
A metal oxide-containing composition, the composition comprising: metal oxide nanoparticles having a surface, the metal oxide nanoparticles described on average by Formula I: M. x O y I; and one or more heteroatom donor ligands bonded to the surface of the nanoparticles, the donor ligands selected from the group consisting of pyrazole, imidazole, triazole, tetrazole, and combinations thereof, wherein M is a metal consisting of one or more of the following oxidation states: +1, +2, +3, +4, +5, +6, +7, and +8; O is oxygen; and x and y are numbers having a ratio that is equal to the ratio of an average number of M atoms to an average number of O atoms in the nanoparticles, wherein the average number of M atoms is from about 10 to about 5×10 10 atoms and the average number of O atoms is at least about 0.01 times the number of M atoms.