What Contributes to the Measured Chiral Optical Response of the Glutathione-Protected Au25 Nanocluster?

The water-soluble glutathione-protected [Au25(GSH)18]−1 nanocluster was investigated by integrating several methodologies such as molecular dynamics simulations, essential dynamics analysis, and state-of-the-art time-dependent density functional theory calculations. Fundamental aspects such as conformational, weak interactions and solvent effects, especially hydrogen-bonds, were included and found to play a fundamental role in assessing the optical response of this system. Our analysis demonstrated not only that the electronic circular dichroism is extremely sensitive to the solvent presence but also that the solvent itself plays an active role in the optical activity of such system, formin…