Core Size Conversion of Au329(SCH2CH2Ph)84 to Au279(SPh‑tBu)84 Nanomolecules

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C Vol. 123; no. 14; pp. 9634 - 9639
• Main Authors: Eswaramoorthy, Senthil Kumar, Sakthivel, Naga Arjun, Dass, Amala
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 11.04.2019
• Subjects: gold; ligands; mass spectrometry; physical chemistry
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b01953

We report the core size conversion of Au329(SCH2CH2Ph)84 to Au279(SPh-tBu)84 plasmonic nanomolecules. The mass spectrometric studies have revealed an unprecedented reaction pathway for the Au329 to Au279 core size conversion reaction via three steps. First, ligand exchange with 4-tert-butylbenzenethiolate occurs, followed by simultaneous progression of ligand exchange and core-size conversion with the loss of one Au atom after another and finally reaching completion with full ligand exchange on Au279. Typically, when a core size conversion occurs in molecule-like nanomolecules, different sizes have different electronic and structural properties; in this case, both the reactant and the product possess plasmonic behavior and bulk-like face-centered cubic structures. Also, this is the first report to study the core size transformation involving a difference of 50 metal atoms but identical 84 ligand count.