Eur. Phys. J. D 43, 201-204 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00113-x

Dynamical aspects and the role of IVR for the reactivity of noble metal clusters towards molecular oxygen

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Chemie, Brook-Taylor-Straße 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a vbk@chemie.hu-berlin.de

Received: 8 September 2006
Revised: 10 October 2006
Published online: 24 May 2007

Abstract

Here, we present the dynamical aspects and the role of internal energy redistribution (IVR) in the reactivity of noble metal clusters towards O₂. We show on the example of Ag₃O₂^- / Ag₃O₂ / Ag₃O₂⁺ that NeNePo spectroscopy carried out under zero electron kinetic energy (ZEKE) conditions can be a powerful tool to investigate the geometry relaxation and IVR induced by photodetachment in real time. Furthermore, we demonstrate that difference in the reactivity of Ag₆^- and Au₆^- towards O₂ can be attributed to different nature of the IVR process. Dissipative IVR in Ag₆^- favors fast complex stabilization, whereas resonant IVR found for Au₆^- might be an important factor determining the catalytic activity of Au₆^- cluster in the CO oxidation.