Heavily doped Au25–xAgx(SC6H11)18− nanoclusters: silver goes from the core to the surface

We report a method for heavy doping of the Au25(SR)18 nanocluster (where R = C6H11) with silver through the Ag(I)–thiolate complex induced size/structure transformation of Au23(SR)16− into Au25–xAgx(SR)18−. X-ray crystallographic analysis revealed that Ag dopants are distributed not only in the icosahedral core but also in the surface staple motifs; the latter was not achieved in earlier studies of alloy Au25–xAgx nanoclusters.