Structurally similar molecule-like Au₁₁(PPh₃)₇Cl₃ and [Au₁₁(PPh₃)₈Cl₂]Cl nanoclusters have been successfully synthesized and employed as catalysts for selective oxidation of styrene. The two clusters exhibited similar but slightly different well-defined optical absorbance, and the subtle structural difference is also reflected in proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) studies. In electrochemical measurements, Au₁₁(PPh₃)₇Cl₃ and [Au₁₁(PPh₃)₈Cl₂]Cl show a large electrochemical band gap of 2.15 eV and 2.09 eV, respectively. Styrene oxidation has been employed as a model reaction to investigate the impacts of the ligand shell composition on the catalytic activity and selectivity of the two clusters. Interestingly, the main product is benzaldehyde when oxygen is employed as oxidant, and the catalytic activity of Au₁₁(PPh₃)₇Cl₃ is higher than that of [Au₁₁(PPh₃)₈Cl₂]Cl. Under the same conditions, the two Au₁₁ clusters exhibit much higher catalytic activity than larger clusters (Au₂₅, Au₃₈ and Au₁₄₄) capped with phenylethiolates, as a manifestation of both size influence and surface ligand impacts. In addition, the oxidation efficiency of styrene exhibit a sharp increase when tert-butyl hydroperoxide is utilized as the oxidant, where the catalytic activities of Au₁₁(PPh₃)₇Cl₃ and [Au₁₁(PPh₃)₈Cl₂]Cl are comparable with styrene epoxide being the major product. Finally, the twin clusters are either reduced or oxidized to probe the charge effects upon the catalytic reaction, and it was found that the conversion of styrene went up with the charge state from reduced to oxidized for both clusters.

结构相似的分子状Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₇ Cl ₃和[Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₈ Cl ₂ ] Cl纳米簇已成功合成，并用作苯乙烯选择性氧化的催化剂。这两个簇显示相似但略有不同的明确的吸光度，并且在质子核磁共振（¹ H NMR）研究中也反映出微妙的结构差异。在电化学测量中，Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₇ Cl ₃和[Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₈ Cl ₂ ] Cl显示出分别为2.15eV和2.09eV的大电化学带隙。苯乙烯氧化已被用作模型反应来研究配体壳组成对两个簇的催化活性和选择性的影响。有趣的是，当使用氧气作为氧化剂时，主要产物是苯甲醛，Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₇ Cl ₃的催化活性高于[Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₈ Cl ₂ ] Cl的催化活性。在相同条件下，两个Au ₁₁团簇的催化活性要比较大的团簇（Au ₂₅，Au ₃₈和Au ₁₄₄）被苯硫醇_盐封端，作为尺寸影响和表面配体影响的体现。此外，当使用叔丁基氢过氧化物作为氧化剂时，苯乙烯的氧化效率会急剧提高，其中Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₇ Cl ₃和[Au ₁₁（PPh ₃）₈ Cl ₂] Cl与主要产品苯乙烯环氧化物相当。最后，双簇被还原或被氧化以探测催化反应中的电荷效应，并且发现对于两个簇，苯乙烯的转化率随着电荷状态从还原态到氧化态的上升而上升。