The 1990 discovery of molecular solids rich in Ih-C60 clusters was a crucial moment reported first at ISSPIC-5 in Konstanz. Here we report on a development, comparable in several key respects, in cluster-compounds of noble-metal atoms: During experiments aimed at under- standing the geological and microbial origins of metallic gold, aurous-thiolate (AuX) has been reduced and the products analyzed by electrospray volatilization, leading to the accumulation of a remarkably abundant cluster compound comprising precisely 60 anionic ligands (X-) and 144 gold atoms. Concerning the question of what kind of 204-atom structure might give rise to such a ubiquitous species, we suggest a sextuple-strand woven sphere in which the 60 X- sites occupy vertices of the snub-dodecahedron, and are linked in coordinative zig-zag (Z) fashion to 120 Au-sites. This object is commonly encountered as the traditional woven-reed football (cf. Figure below) of Southeast Asia, whose exceptional stability was noted by Fuller & Edmundson and mathematized by Nishiyama. The remaining 24-Au are distributed four to each of the six 5-fold axes, acting to cement the structure. This resulting filled Z60 structure, Z = Au2X, thus has all valences satisfied, has chiral-icosahedral (I) symmetry, and appears to be mechanically resilient as well as maximally compact, accounting for the observed resistance to chemical attack. As will be described in this presentation, key features of this structure were antici-pated in the works of ISSPIC pioneers Farges, Dahl, and Martin; whereas Tsukuda & coworkers advanced the precise determination of composition & structure. New evidence is presented that compounds having this unique structure can account for results from many labs concerned with products, typically described as “~2.0-nm gold nano- particles”, as recent advances in analytical methods have enabled such determinations.
