Chiral structure of thiolate-protected 28-gold-atom nanocluster determined by X-ray crystallography

Chenjie Zeng; Tao Li; Anindita Das; Nathaniel L Rosi; Rongchao Jin

doi:10.1021/ja404058q

Chiral structure of thiolate-protected 28-gold-atom nanocluster determined by X-ray crystallography

J Am Chem Soc. 2013 Jul 10;135(27):10011-3. doi: 10.1021/ja404058q. Epub 2013 Jul 1.

Authors

Chenjie Zeng¹, Tao Li, Anindita Das, Nathaniel L Rosi, Rongchao Jin

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.

PMID: 23815445
DOI: 10.1021/ja404058q

Abstract

We report the crystal structure of a new nanocluster formulated as Au28(TBBT)20, where TBBT = 4-tert-butylbenzenethiolate. It exhibits a rod-like Au20 kernel consisting of two interpenetrating cuboctahedra. The kernel is protected by four dimeric "staples" (-SR-Au-SR-Au-SR-) and eight bridging thiolates (-SR-). The unit cell of Au28(TBBT)20 single crystals contains a pair of enantiomers. The origin of chirality is primarily rooted in the rotating arrangement of the four dimeric staples as well as the arrangement of the bridging thiolates (quasi-D2 symmetry). The enantiomers were separated by chiral HPLC and characterized by circular dichroism spectroscopy.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Crystallography, X-Ray
Gold / chemistry*
Models, Molecular
Molecular Structure
Nanostructures / chemistry*
Organogold Compounds / chemistry*
Sulfhydryl Compounds / chemistry*

Substances

Organogold Compounds
Sulfhydryl Compounds
Gold