Nanoparticles with Atomic Resolution: Synthesis and Stable Structures of Atomically Precise Gold Nanoclusters

Precision at the nanoscale has long been a challenging yet critical issue in nanoscience. Recently, atomically precise metal nanoclusters have paved new avenues for the approach by structure determination by X-ray crystallography. The crystal structures of nanoclusters have provided atomic-level insights into the chemistry of nanoparticles, and such progress has also impacted nanoparticle assembly, self-assembled monolayers, catalysis, and so on. The unique structures are protected by gold-thiolate oligomers called “staple” motifs, which stabilize the nanostructures with aesthetic surface patterns. Atomically precise metal nanoclusters have gained great attention because of their unique properties. Unlike conventional nanoparticles, metal nanoclusters can be synthesized with atomic-level precision without any size distribution. Therefore, molecular techniques can be applied for characterization of nanoclusters in order to determine their molecular formulas and atomic structures. The size-focusing method has provided feasible syntheses of atomically precise nanoclusters for a number of sizes with sufficient yields.