Au13(8e): A Secondary Block for Describing a Special Group of Liganded Gold Clusters Containing Icosahedral Au13 Motifs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a secondary structural block, Au13(8e), to analyze liganded gold clusters with icosahedral Au13 motifs, and predicts a new stable gold nanocluster with potential for laboratory synthesis.

Contribution

The paper proposes a new secondary block, Au13(8e), for better understanding of gold cluster structures containing icosahedral motifs.

Findings

Introduction of Au13(8e) as a secondary structural block.

Structural analysis of gold nanoclusters with icosahedral motifs.

Prediction of a new stable ligand-protected gold cluster.

Abstract

A grand unified model (GUM) has been proposed recently to understand structure anatomy and evolution of liganded gold clusters. In this work, besidesthe two types of elementary blocks (triangular Au3(2e) and tetrahedral Au4(2e)), we introduce a secondary block, namely, the icosahedral Au13 with 8e valence electrons, noted as Au13(8e). Using this secondary block, structural anatomy and evolution of a special group of liganded gold nanoclusters containing icosahedral Au13 motifs can be conveniently analyzed. In addition, a new ligand-protected cluster Au49(PR3)10(SR)15Cl2 is predicted to exhibit high chemical and thermal stability, suggesting likelihood of its synthesis in the laboratory.