Au 42 : A possible ground-state noble metallic nanotube

A large hollow tubelike Au42 is predicted as a new ground-state configuration based on the scalar relativistic density functional theory. The shape of this new Au42 cluster is similar to a (5,5) single-wall gold nanotube, the two ends of which are capped by half of a fullerenelike Au32. In the same way, a series of Aun (n=37,42,47,52,57,62,67,72,…, Δn=5) tubelike structures has been constructed. The highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital gaps suggested a significant semiconductor-conductor alternation in n∊[32,47]. Similar to the predictions and speculation of Daedalus [D. E. H. Jones, New Sci. 32, 245 (1966); E. Osawa, Superaromaticity (Kagaku, Kyoto, 1970), Vol. 25, pp. 854–863; Z. Yoshida and E. Osawa, Aromaticity Chemical Monograph (Kagaku Dojin, Kyoto, Japan, 1971), Vol. 22, pp. 174–176; D. A. Bochvar and E. G. Gal’pern, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 209, 610 (1973)], here a large hollow ground-state gold nanotube was predicted theoretically.