Generation of metal–carbon and metal–nitrogen clusters with a laser induced plasma technique

Boron substitution in aluminum cluster anions: magic clusters and reactivity with oxygen

We have studied the size-selective reactivity of AlnBm(-) clusters m = 1,2 with O2 to investigate the effect of congener substitution in energetic aluminum clusters. Mixed-metal clusters offer an additional strategy for tuning the electronic and geometric structure of clusters and by substituting an atom with a congener; we may investigate the effect of structural changes in clusters with similar electronic structures. Using a fast-flow tube mass spectrometer, we formed aluminum boride cluster anions and exposed them to molecular oxygen. We found multiple stable species with Al12B(-) and Al11B2(-) being highly resistant to reactivity with oxygen. These clusters behave in a similar manner as Al13(-), which has previously been found to be stable in oxygen because of its icosahedral geometry and its filled electronic shell. Al13(-) and Al12B(-) have icosahedral structures, while Al11B2(-) forms a distorted icosahedron. All three of these clusters have filled electronic shells, and Al12B(-) has a larger HOMO-LUMO gap due to its compact geometry. Other cluster sizes are investigated, and the structures of the AlnB(-) series are found to have endohedrally doped B atoms, as do many of the AlnB2(-) clusters. The primary etching products are found to be a loss of two Al2O molecules, with boron likely to remain in the cluster.

Al4H7(-) is a resilient building block for aluminum hydrogen cluster materials

The formation and oxygen etching of Al(n)H(m)(-) clusters are characterized in a flow reactor experiment with first-principles theoretical investigations to demonstrate the exceptional stability of Al(4)H(7)(-). The origin of the preponderance of Al(4)H(7)(-) in the mass spectra of hydrogenated aluminum anions and its resistance to O(2) etching are discussed. Al(4)H(7)(-) is shown to have the ability to bond with ionic partners to form stable hydrides through addition of an alkali atom [XAl(4)H(7) (X = Li-Cs)]. An intuitive model that can predict the existence of stable hydrogenated cluster species is proposed. The potential synthetic utility of the superatom assemblies built on these units is addressed.

Formation, detection, and stability studies of neutral vanadium sulfide clusters

Neutral vanadium sulfide clusters are generated by the reaction of seeded hydrogen sulfide in a helium carrier gas with laser ablated vanadium metal within a supersonic nozzle. The exiting clusters are expanded into a vacuum in a molecular beam and are ionized by both ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum UV (VUV) laser radiation. The generated ions are detected by a time of flight mass spectrometer. With single photon ionization (SPI) employing VUV (118 nm) radiation, sulfur rich clusters (V(m)S(n), n>m+1) and hydrogen containing clusters (V(m)S(n)H(x), x>0) are observed. With multiphoton ionization (MPI) through nanosecond UV (193 nm) radiation, these sulfur rich and hydrogen containing clusters cannot be observed, indicating severe fragmentation generated by MPI and the importance of SPI in determining the neutral vanadium sulfide cluster distribution. With MPI through femtosecond UV (226 nm) radiation, a few sulfur rich and hydrogen containing clusters are detected, but most clusters observed by SPI are still undetected even by femtosecond MPI. Density functional theory calculations are applied to optimize energies and structures of the clusters with m=1-3 and n=0-7. The experimental results are well interpreted based on the calculations. The calculated and experimental results for vanadium sulfides are compared with those of vanadium oxides in literature.