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The chemical reaction between Au11(PPh3)8Cl2+ and n-alkanethiol CnH2n+1SH (n = 2, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18) serendipitously yielded stable Au25 cluster compounds with the formula, Au25(PPh3)10(SCnH2n+1)5Cl22+. Single-crystal X-ray structural analysis of Au25(PPh3)10(SC2H5)5Cl2(SbF6)2 revealed that the Au25 core is constructed by bridging two icosahedral Au13 clusters with thiolates sharing a vertex atom. Optical absorption spectroscopy showed that coupling between the Au13 building blocks gives rise to new electronic levels in addition to those of the Au13 constituents.
Shichibu et al. (2007) studied this question.