Thiolate-Protected Au-25 Superatoms as Building Blocks: Dimers and Crystals

• A particularly stable thiolate-protected gold nanocluster, Au-25(SR)(18), was structurally characterized from X-ray crystallography in 2008, and concomitantly its electronic and optical properties were analyzed via density functional theory. The robust geometry and a well-understood electronic structure of this cluster motivate explorations of properties of extended systems made out of Au-25(SR)(18) building blocks. As a first step in this direction, we analyze here structural, vibrational, electronic, and optical properties of the Au-25 cluster anion as it was observed in the crystalline environment and predict properties of cluster dimers, where the Au-25 units are linked together. via an aromatic dithiolate linker. We show that properties of each Au-25 unit of the dimer can be quite independently modified from the other by doping with a nonmagnetic (Pd) or magnetic (Mn) metal atom. We anticipate that material systems with interesting properties could be made from these building blocks, provided that a suitable chemistry for their controlled linking can be found.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

complexes

gold clusters

dynamics

molecules

compound

ab-initio

mass-spectrometry

au

nanoparticles

simple metal-clusters

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)