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ReportsStructure of a Thiol Monolayer-Protected Gold Nanoparticle at 1.1 Å Resolution 
Structural information on nanometer-sized gold particles has been limited, due in part to the problem of preparing homogeneous material. Here we report the crystallization and x-ray structure determination of a p-mercaptobenzoic acid (p-MBA)–protected gold nanoparticle, which comprises 102 gold atoms and 44 p-MBAs. The central gold atoms are packed in a Marks decahedron, surrounded by additional layers of gold atoms in unanticipated geometries. The p-MBAs interact not only with the gold but also with one another, forming a rigid surface layer. The particles are chiral, with the two enantiomers alternating in the crystal lattice. The discrete nature of the particle may be explained by the closing of a 58-electron shell.
1 Department of Structural Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. * These authors contributed equally to this work.
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Present address: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. 
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: 
Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
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