A twisted bi-icosahedral Au25 cluster enclosed by bulky arenethiolatesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Details of synthesis and characterization, measurements, and analysis. See DOI: 10.1039/c3cc47154c

Ligation of 2,6-diphenylbenzenethiol (DppSH) onto Au clusters stabilized by poly( N -vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) and subsequent core etching yielded a single cluster Au 25 (SDpp) 11 . High-energy X-ray diffraction measurement showed that Au 25 constitutes a core in Au 25 (SDpp) 11 . We propose a bi-icosahedral Au 25 core whose 22 Au surface atoms are capped directly by 11 bulky arenethiolates. A vertex-sharing bi-icosahedral Au 25 cluster with twisted conformation was synthesized by protection with 2,6-diphenylbenzenethiolate (DppS).