Eur. Phys. J. D 36, 187-191 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00236-0

Interaction of Cu cluster anions (Cu_n^-, n = 8–11) with oxygen

Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a young.kim@uni-konstanz.de

Received: 27 April 2005
Revised: 6 July 2005
Published online: 23 August 2005

Abstract

The reaction of oxygen with Cu cluster anions consisting of 6–11 atoms was studied by means of Time-of-Flight mass (TOF) spectroscopy and Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS). Using molecular oxygen, we found that a Cu cluster () can react only with one single oxygen molecule, which adsorbs molecularly, implying that the clusters studied here are less reactive towards oxygen chemisorption compared to the smaller clusters (n<5). This result indicates that chemical properties can alter significantly with increasing cluster size. Depending on the cluster source conditions, different cluster structures and reactivity patterns were found. These results are used to qualitatively describe the chemisorption energetics of oxygen on Cu cluster anions.