English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Ligand exchange reactions are widely used for imparting new functionality on or integrating nanoparticles into devices. Thiolate-for-thiolate ligand exchange in monolayer protected gold nanoclusters has been used for over a decade; however, a firm structural basis of this reaction has been lacking. Herein, we present the first single-crystal X-ray structure of a partially exchanged Au(102)(p-MBA)(40)(p-BBT)(4) (p-MBA = para-mercaptobenzoic acid, p-BBT = para-bromobenzene thiol) with p-BBT as the incoming ligand. The crystal structure shows that 2 of the 22 symmetry-unique p-MBA ligand sites are partially exchanged to p-BBT under the initial fast kinetics in a 5 min timescale exchange reaction. Each of these ligand-binding sites is bonded to a different solvent-exposed Au atom, suggesting an associative mechanism for the initial ligand exchange. Density functional theory calculations modeling both thiol and thiolate incoming ligands postulate a mechanistic pathway for thiol-based ligand exchange. The discrete modification of a small set of ligand binding sites suggests Au(102)(p-MBA)(44) as a powerful platform for surface chemical engineering.

Structural and Theoretical Basis for Ligand Exchange on Thiolate Monolayer Protected Gold Nanoclusters