title: Ligand-Induced Stability of Gold Nanoclusters: Thiolate versus Selenolate.
abstract: Thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters have attracted considerable attention as building blocks for new functional materials and have been extensively researched. Some studies have reported that changing the ligand of these gold nanoclusters from thiolate to selenolate increases cluster stability. To confirm this, in this study, we compare the stabilities of precisely synthesized [Au25(SC8H17)18](-) and [Au25(SeC8H17)18](-) against degradation in solution, thermal dissolution, and laser fragmentation. The results demonstrate that changing the ligand from thiolate to selenolate increases cluster stability in reactions involving dissociation of the gold-ligand bond but reduces cluster stability in reactions involving intramolecular dissociation of the ligand. These results reveal that using selenolate ligands makes it possible to produce gold clusters that are more stable against degradation in solution than thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters.
authors: Wataru
authors: W
authors: Kurashige
authors: Masaki
authors: M
authors: Yamaguchi
authors: ‡Department of Theoretical and Computational Molecular Science, Institute for Molecular Science, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Aichi 444-8585, Japan.
authors: Katsuyuki
authors: K
authors: Nobusada
authors: Yuichi
authors: Y
authors: Negishi
keywords: cluster stability; degradation in solution; laser fragmentation; ligand effect; selenolate; thermal dissolution; thiolate-protected gold clusters