https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170075
Metastability of gold-carbonyl cluster complexes, AuN(CO)M−
1
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of
Technology Atlanta, GA 30332-0400, USA
2
School of Physics Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0430, USA
Corresponding author: a whetten@chemistry.gatech.edu
Received:
17
April
2001
Published online: 15 September 2001
Smaller gold-cluster anions, typified by Au
, adsorb
multiple CO molecules in a high-pressure, room-temperature
flow-reactor, tending toward previously unknown saturation
compositions, Au7(CO)
. The weakness of the gold-carbonyl
adsorption bond is evidenced indirectly by the high CO partial
pressure required and more directly by the high probability of
fragmentation in the field-free flight region of the reflectron-type
time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The analysis of this
metastability reveals that the actual distribution 
of
products Au7(CO)
in the reactor may be highly
non-statistical, e.g. with only even-M species present.
PACS: 61.46.+w – Nanoscale materials: clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanocrystals / 36.40.Jn – Reactivity of clusters / 36.40.Wa – Charged clusters / 82.33.Hk – Reactions on clusters
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2001
