https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00119-4
Reactivity of anionic gold oxide clusters towards CO: experiment and theory
1
Departments of Chemistry and Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
2
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Chemie, Brook-Taylor-Straße 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Corresponding author: a vbk@chemie.hu-berlin.de
Received:
31
August
2006
Revised:
24
October
2006
Published online:
24
May
2007
In this paper, we present results from our joint experimental and theoretical study of the reactivity of anionic gold oxide clusters Au2,3O1-4- towards CO. We provide clear evidence that, although O–O bond weakening/dissociation is important to enable CO oxidation, the presence of atomic oxygen can be favorable but is not always sufficient. Furthermore, we show that with the addition of a single gold atom the reactivity channels can be changed. As a consequence, in contrast to CO oxidation in the case of anionic gold dimer oxides, association of CO or replacement of O2 by CO become the dominant reaction channels for Au3On-. This demonstrates the nonscalable properties of gold clusters in the size regime in which each atom counts.
PACS: 31.15.Qg – Molecular dynamics and other numerical methods / 31.15.Ar – Ab initio calculations
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2007
