1. Observation of Body-Centered Cubic Gold Nanocluster.
- Author
-
Liu, Chao, Li, Tao, Li, Gao, Nobusada, Katsuyuki, Zeng, Chenjie, Pang, Guangsheng, Rosi, Nathaniel L., and Jin, Rongchao
- Subjects
BODY-centered cubic metals ,GOLD nanoparticles ,NANOSTRUCTURED material manufacturing ,THIOLATES ,MOLECULAR structure - Abstract
The structure of nanoparticles plays a critical role in dictating their material properties. Gold is well known to adopt face-centered cubic (fcc) structure. Herein we report the first observation of a body-centered cubic (bcc) gold nanocluster composed of 38 gold atoms protected by 20 adamantanethiolate ligands and two sulfido atoms ([Au
38 S2 (SR)20 ], where R=C10 H15 ) as revealed by single-crystal X-ray crystallography. This bcc structure is in striking contrast with the fcc structure of bulk gold and conventional Au nanoparticles, as well as the bi-icosahedral structure of [Au38 (SCH2 CH2 Ph)24 ]. The bcc nanocluster has a distinct HOMO-LUMO gap of ca. 1.5 eV, much larger than the gap (0.9 eV) of the bi-icosahedral [Au38 (SCH2 CH2 Ph)24 ]. The unique structure of the bcc gold nanocluster may be promising in catalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF