Abstract: | Two homoleptic alkynyl‐protected gold clusters with compositions of NaAu25(C≡CAr)18] and (Ph4P)Au25(C≡CAr)18] (Na? 1 and Ph4P? 1 , Ar=3,5‐bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl) were synthesized via a direct reduction method. 1 is a magic cluster analogous to Au25(SR)18]? in terms of electron counts and metal‐to‐ligand ratio. Single‐crystal structure analysis reveals that 1 has an identical Au13 kernel to Au25(SR)18]?, but adopts a distinctly different arrangement of the six peripheral dimer staple motifs. The steric hindrance of alkynyl ligands is responsible for the D3 arrangement of Au25. The introduction of alkynyl also significantly changes the optical absorption features of the nanocluster as supported by DFT calculations. This magic cluster confirms that there is a similar but quite different parallel alkynyl‐protected metal cluster universe in comparison to the thiolated one. |