Crystal Structure of the PdAu₂₄(SR)₁₈⁰Superatom

Abstract

The single-crystal X-ray structure of Pd-doped Au25(SR)18 was solved. The crystal structure reveals that in PdAu24(SR)18, the Pd atom is localized only to the centroid of the Au25(SR)18 cluster. This single-crystal X-ray structure shows that PdAu24(SR)18(0) is well conceptualized with the superatom theory. The PdAu24(SR)18(0) charge state is isoelectronic with Au25(SR)18(+1) as determined by a first order Jahn-Teller effect of similar magnitude and by electrochemical comparison. The previously reported increased stability of PdAu24(SR)18 can be rationalized in terms of Pd-Au bonds that are shorter than the Au-Au bonds in Au25(SR)18.