Selective formation of [Au(SPh Bu)], [AuPd(SPh Bu)] and [AuPt(SCHPh)(SPh Bu)] by controlling ligand-exchange reaction.

To use atomically precise metal nanoclusters (NCs) in various application fields, it is essential to establish size-selective synthesis methods for the metal NCs. Studies on thiolate (SR)-protected gold NCs (Au (SR) NCs) revealed that the atomically precise Au (SR) NC, which has a different chemical composition from the precursor, can be synthesized size-selectively by inducing transformation in the framework structure of the metal NCs by a ligand-exchange reaction. In this study, we selected the reaction of [Au(SCHPh)] (SCHPh = 2-phenylethanethiolate) with 4--butylbenzenethiol ( BuPhSH) as a model ligand-exchange reaction and attempted to obtain new metal NCs by changing the amount of thiol, the central atom of the precursor NCs, or the reaction time from previous studies.