The electronic structure of Au25 clusters: between discrete and continuous

Here, an approach based on synchrotron resonant photoemission is employed to explore the transition between quantization and hybridization of the electronic structure in atomically precise ligand-stabilized nanoparticles. While the presence of ligands maintains quantization in Au-25 clusters, their removal renders increased hybridization of the electronic states in the vicinity of the Fermi level. These observations are supported by DFT studies.