“…[11] To elucidate the effects of surface functionalization of nanoparticle induced by ligand variations,i ti sn ecessary to isolate silver NCs having both sulfur and selenium surface ligands,w ith well-defined chemical compositions in order to compare their structures and physiochemical properties.In our search for silver NCs,w eh ave been able to synthesize acouple of mixed-valent silver species such as Ag 20 and Ag 21 protected by dithiophosphate (dtp) ligands, [9] but so far we could only isolate as eries of hydride/chalcogenide/ halide-centered silver(I) cluster compounds containing selenium as surface ligands.Notable examples are [Ag 7 (H){Se 2 P-(O i Pr) 2 } 6 ], [Ag 8 (X){Se 2 P(O i Pr) 2 } 6 ] + (X = H, Cl, Br), [Ag 9 (Se)-{Se 2 P(OEt) 2 } 8 ] À ,[ Ag 10 (Se){Se 2 P(O i Pr) 2 } 8 ], [Ag 11 (m 9 -I)(m 3 -I) 3 -{Se 2 P(O i Pr) 2 } 6 ] + ,a nd [Ag 12 (m 5 -X) 2 {Se 2 P(OEt) 2 } 10 ]( X = Br, I). [12,13] Thel ack of Ag n (dsep) m (dsep = diselenophosphate) molecular structures precludes ad eep understanding of the physicochemical properties of such silver NCs,a nd fundamental questions on the dsep-capped Ag 20 and Ag 21 clusters await to be resolved:1 )Have both silver NCs with Sa nd Se protecting ligands identical geometric structure or not;a nd 2) How do the ligands affect the optical and chemical properties of these NCs?T hese questions are important for understanding the properties of ligand-protected silver NCs.As diselenophosphates are easily oxidized under aerobic conditions and decompose rapidly via PÀSe bond cleavages in the presence of excess amount of reducing reagents, [14] the direct synthetic procedure adopted for the preparation of Ag 20 (dtp) 12 cannot be used. Therefore we focused on the ligand exchange reactions.H erein, we report the synthesis, characterization, and first crystal structure of silver NCs [Ag 20 {Se 2 P(O i Pr) 2 } 12 ], (3), and [Ag 21 {Se 2 P(OEt) 2 } 12 ] + ,( 4), stabilized by dsep ligands,w hich can only be made via…”