J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol.

2013, 13,

Atomically precise Au-n nanoclusters (n = number of gold atom in cluster) ideally composed of an exact number of gold atoms have unique core-shell structure and non-metallic electronic properties. The extremely small size of Au-25 and Au-38 nanoclusters induces a large energy gap in their electronic structures, which gives rise to unprecedented catalytic activity in some chemical reactions. Here we report dehydration of phenylboronic acid to boroxine with small Au-25 and Au-38 nanocluster catalysts, respectively. Especially, Au-25 nanocluster is arranged with Au-13 icosahedral core capped by twelve gold atoms as an exterior shell. Au-38 nanocluster is a face-fused biicosahedral Au-23 core encapsulated by a shell comprised of fifteen gold atoms. Au-38 nanoclusters exhibit higher activity than Au-25 nanoclusters. This study is an attempt to provide a powerful tool for the catalyst design and to gain a further insight into the correlation of structural properties with catalytic properties.