The Au25 cluster is based on a central icosahedral Au13 core, which is capped by an exterior shell composed of the remaining twelve Au atoms, and the whole cluster is encapsulated by eighteen thiolated ligands (the thiolated groups can be various). In this cluster, the bridging -SR ligands form an extended “staple” motif, where three sulfur and two gold atom are arranged in a “V-shaped” -S-Au-S-Au-S- pattern. Other type of “staple” motif can be seen in the Au102 cluster.