Thiolate-protected metal nanoclusters have highly size- and structure-dependent physicochemical properties and are a promising class of nanomaterials.As a consequence, for the rationalization of Wall stickers their synthesis and for the design of new clusters with tailored properties, a precise characterization of their composition and structure at the atomic level is required.We report a combined ion mobility-mass spectrometry approach with density functional theory (DFT) calculations for determination of the structural and optical properties of ultra-small gold nanoclusters protected by thioglycolic acid (TGA) as ligand molecules, Au10(TGA)10.Collision cross-section Apparel (CCS) measurements are reported for two charge states.DFT optimized geometrical structures are used to compute CCSs.
The comparison of the experimentally- and theoretically-determined CCSs allows concluding that such nanoclusters have catenane structures.