What Protects the Core When the Thiolated Gold Cluster is Extremely Small?
- ORNL
- University of Puerto Rico
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- University of Georgia, Athens, GA
The title question is motivated by the fact that extremely small thiolated-gold clusters such as Au{sub 20}(SR){sub 16} have been isolated, but their undetermined structures cannot be fully rationalized by the present knowledge derived from single-crystal structures of larger clusters. One needs to go beyond the linear monomer (RSAuSR) and V-shaped dimer (RSAuSRAuSR) motifs that were found to protect larger clusters. We hypothesize that the U-shaped trimer motif (RSAuSRAuSRAuSR) is required to protect the core of some extremely small thiolated-gold clusters, which have about 20 or fewer Au atoms. We test this hypothesis by proposing structural models for Au{sub 10}(SR){sub 8} based on two trimer motifs protecting a tetrahedral Au{sub 4} core and for Au{sub 20}(SR){sub 16} based on four trimer motifs protecting an Au{sub 8} core.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 972318
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 113, Issue 39; ISSN 1932-7447
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Understanding and Predicting Thiolated Gold Nanoclusters from First Principles
On the Structure of a Thiolated Gold Cluster: Au44(SR)28(2-)