Probing the electronic structure and chemical bonding of the "staple" motifs of thiolate gold nanoparticles: Au(SCH3)2- and Au2(SCH3)3-

Thiolate-protected gold nanoparticles have been found recently to be coordinated by the so-called "staple" bonding motifs, consisting of quasi-linear [RS-Au-SR] and V-shaped [RS-Au-(SR)-Au-SR] units, which carry a negative charge formally. Using photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) in conjunction with ab initio calculations, we have investigated the electronic structure and chemical bonding of the simplest staples with R = CH3: Au(SCH3)(2)(-) and Au-2(SCH3)(3)(-), which were produced by electrospray ionization. PES data of the two Au-thiolate complexes are obtained both at room temperature (RT) and 20 K. The temperature-dependent study reveals significant spectral broadening at RT, in agreement with theoretical predictions of multiple conformations due to the different orientations of the -SCH3 groups. The Au-S bonds in Au-n(SCH3)(n+1)(-) (n = 1, 2) are shown to be covalent via a variety of chemical bonding analyses. The strong Au-thiolate bonding and the stability of the Au-thiolate complexes are consistent with their ubiquity as staples for gold nanoparticles and on gold surfaces.