Fcc vs Non‐fcc Structural Isomerism of Gold Nanoparticles with Kernel Atom Packing‐Dependent Photoluminescence

Structural isomerism provides an excellent opportunity for the correlation between structure and property. Unfortunately, the structural isomers of metal nanoparticles are rarely reported in liquid/solid phase and genuine structural isomerism with distinctly different kernel atom packing (e.g., face‐centered cubic (fcc) vs non‐fcc) has not been reported until now, to the best of our knowledge. Herein we introduce a novel ion induction method to synthesize a unique gold nanocluster with an interesting twist mirror symmetry structure, which was precisely characterized by mass spectrometry, X‐ray crystallography, etc. The as‐synthesized novel gold nanocluster has the same composition but different kernel atom packing with an existing gold nanocluster Au42(TBBT)26 (TBBT = 4‐tert‐butylbenzenethiolate). The two Au42 nanoclusters represent the first pair of structural isomers with distinctly different kernel atom packing. Fcc‐structured Au42(TBBT)26 nanoclusters exhibit more enhanced photoluminescence than that of non‐fcc‐structured Au42(TBBT)26 nanoclusters, indicating that the fcc‐structure might be more beneficial for emission than the non‐fcc structure. This conceit was further supported by comparison of the emission intensity between another three pairs of gold nanoclusters with similar compositions and sizes but with different kernel atom packings (fcc vs non‐fcc).

from A via a.sfakia on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2tgzwzz