Quantum-chemical study of the effect of ligands on the structure and properties of gold clusters

The structures of [Au4(dpmp)2X2]2+clusters, where Х =–C≡CH,–СН3,–SCH3,–F,–Cl,–Br,–I, dpmp is bis((diphenylphosphino)methyl)(phenyl)phosphine, are calculated at the level of density functional theory with the PBE functional and a modified Dirac–Coulomb–Breit Hamiltonian in an all-electron basis set (Λ). Using the example of [Au4(dpmp)2(С≡CС6Н5)2]2+, the interatomic distances and bond angles calculated by means of PBE0/LANL2DZ, TPSS/LANL2DZ, TPSSh/LANL2DZ, and PBE/Λ are compared to X-ray crystallography data. It is shown that PBE/Λ yields the most accurate calculation of the geometrical parameters of this cluster. The ligand effect on the electronic stability of a cluster and the stability in reactions of decomposition into different fragments is studied, along with the capability of ligand exchange. Stability is predicted for [Au4(dpmp)2F2]2+ and [Au4(dpmp)2(SCH3)2]2+, while [Au4(dpmp)2I2]2+ cluster is unstable and its decomposes into two identical fragments is supposed.