Copper atom clustering

The present chapter cites more than 350 papers, and focuses specifically on nonoxidized, nonsupported Cu > nanosized particles and structures. Unlike the situation in the recent literature, we wiU not use the adjective metallic to qualify these nanophases. Attributing the metallic character to a novel copper nanomaterial should necessarily imply an assessment of its electron energy distribution. The chemical bond connecting a Hmited number of copper atoms clustered in the core of a NP and stabiHzed by an outer shell composed of other substances, can hardly be regarded as a metallic bond. 

In 1985 Car and Parrinello invented a method [111-113] in which molecular dynamics (MD) methods are combined with first-principles computations such that the interatomic forces due to the electronic degrees of freedom are computed by density functional theory [114-116] and the statistical properties by the MD method. This method and related ab initio simulations have been successfully applied to carbon [117], silicon [118-120], copper [121], surface reconstruction [122-128], atomic clusters [129-133], molecular crystals [134], the epitaxial growth of metals [135-140], and many other systems for a review see Ref. 113. 

In the reactions of 10.13a with alkali metal terr-butoxides cage expansion occurs to give the sixteen-atom cluster 10.15, in which two molecules of MO Bu (M = Na, K) are inserted into the dimeric structure. The cluster 10.13a also undergoes transmetallation reactions with coinage metals. For example, the reactions with silver(I) or copper(I) halides produces complexes in which three of the ions are replaced by Ag" or Cu" ions and a molecule of lithium halide is incorporated in the cluster. ... 

A chemical formula describes the composition of a substance by giving the relative numbers of atoms of each element. When a substance contains discrete molecules, a chemical formula is also a molecular formula. A chemical formula contains elemental symbols to represent atoms and subscripted numbers to indicate the number of atoms of each type. The simplest chemical formulas describe pure elements. The chemical formulas of most elements are their elemental symbols helium is He, silicon is Si, copper is Cu. However, seven elements occur naturally as diatomic molecules (Figure 3-lT so their chemical formulas take the form X2 A few other elements occur as atomic clusters, notably P4 and Sg. ... 

When the ruthenium EXAFS for the ruthenium-copper catalyst is compared with the EXAFS for a ruthenium reference catalyst containing no copper, it is found that they are not very different. This indicates that the environment about a ruthenium atom in the bimetallic catalyst is on the average not very different from that in the reference catalyst. This result is consistent with the view that a ruthenium-copper cluster consists of a central core of ruthenium atoms with the copper atoms present at the surface. 

If the degree of coverage of the ruthenium by the copper is very high, the copper atoms should be coordinated extensively to ruthenium atoms. It is emphasized that the ruthenium-copper clusters are of such a size (average diameter of 32A by electron microscopy (33)) that the surface metal atoms constitute almost half of the total. Hence for a Cu/Ru atomic ratio of one, the number of copper atoms would correspond roughly to that required to form a monolayer on the ruthenium. 

The copper EXAFS of the ruthenium-copper clusters might be expected to differ substantially from the copper EXAFS of a copper on silica catalyst, since the copper atoms have very different environments. This expectation is indeed borne out by experiment, as shown in Figure 2 by the plots of the function K x(K) vs. K at 100 K for the extended fine structure beyond the copper K edge for the ruthenium-copper catalyst and a copper on silica reference catalyst ( ). The difference is also evident from the Fourier transforms and first coordination shell inverse transforms in the middle and right-hand sections of Figure 2. The inverse transforms were taken over the range of distances 1.7 to 3.1A to isolate the contribution to EXAFS arising from the first coordination shell of metal atoms about a copper absorber atom. This shell consists of copper atoms alone in the copper catalyst and of both copper and ruthenium atoms in the ruthenium-copper catalyst. 

This discussion of EXAFS on ruthenium-copper clusters has emphasized qualitative aspects of the data analysis. A quantitative data analysis, yielding information on the various structural parameters of interest, has also been made and published (8). Of particular Interest was the finding that the average compo tion of the first coordination shell of ruthenium and copper atoms about a ruthenium atom was about 90% ruthenium, while that about a copper atom was about 50% ruthenium. Details of the methods Involved in the quantitative analysis of EXAFS data on bimetallic clusters can be obtained from our original papers (8.12-15). 

The ruthenium-copper and osmium-copper systems represent extreme cases in view of the very limited miscibility of either ruthenium or osmium with copper. It may also be noted that the crystal structure of ruthenium or osmium is different from that of copper, the former metals possessing the hep structure and the latter the fee structure. A system which is less extreme in these respects is the rhodium-copper system, since the components both possess the face centered cubic structure and also exhibit at least some miscibility at conditions of interest in catalysis. Recent EXAFS results from our group on rhodium-copper clusters (14) are similar to the earlier results on ruthenium-copper ( ) and osmium-copper (12) clusters, in that the rhodium atoms are coordinated predominantly to other rhodium atoms while the copper atoms are coordinated extensively to both copper and rhodium atoms. Also, we conclude that the copper concentrates in the surface of rhodium-copper clusters, as in the case of the ruthenium-copper and osmium-copper clusters. 

Since ruthenium and rhodium are neighboring elements in the periodic table, a closer comparison of the properties of ruthenium-copper and rhodium-copper clusters is of interest (17). When we compare EXAFS results on rhodium-copper and ruthenium-copper catalysts in which the Cu/Rh and Cu/Ru atomic ratios are both equal to one, we find some differences which can be related to the differences in miscibility of copper with ruthenium and rhodium. The extent of concentration of copper at the surface appears to be lower for the rhodium-copper clusters than for the ruthenium-copper clusters, as evidenced by the fact that rhodium exhibits a greater tendency than ruthenium to be coordinated to copper atoms in such clusters. The rhodium-copper clusters presumably contain some of the copper atoms in the interior of the clusters. 

The 2 1 species are known as cuprates and are the most common synthetic reagents. Disubstituted Cu(I) species have the 3c 10 electronic configuration and would be expected to have linear geometry. The Cu is a center of high electron density and nucleophilicity, and in solution, lithium dimethylcuprate exists as a dimer [LiCu(CH3)2]2.3 The compound is often represented as four methyl groups attached to a tetrahedral cluster of lithium and copper atoms. However, in the presence of Lil, the compound seems to be a monomer of composition (CH3)2CuLi.4... 

Figure 7. Traces of the a-carbon polypeptide backbone of domains 1 and 6 in the hCP structure. Domain 1 is shown (shaded) on the left hand side of the diagram this domain contributes four histidine residues (not shown) to the trinuclear cluster copper atoms are depicted as black spheres. Domain 6 is on the right hand side of the figure and also contributes four histidine residues to the cluster. The portion of the polypeptide chain colored black is that which is missing in the truncated enzyme. This polypeptide, residues 991 to 1046 inclusive, includes two histidine residues bound to the trinuclear copper center and three residues bound to the mononuclear copper in domain 6 these residues are depicted in black. The absence of the C-terminal polypeptide would also remove over 50% of the interdomain hydrogen-bond and iron-pair interactions observed in the intact enzyme.

Lack of reactivity in copper sulfide cluster anions has been associated with structural features such as linear S-Cu-S bonding. Reactivity of metal sulfide cluster anions is associated with exposed under-coordinated metal atoms able to bond to coordinating molecules this is the essence of this chapter. 

In reference 190, the authors describe the spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic techniques they used to determine the pMMO structure. First, EPR and EX AFS experiments indicated a mononuclear, type 2 Cu(II) center hgated by histidine residues and a copper-containing cluster characterized by a 2.57 A Cu-Cu interaction. A functional iron center was also indicated by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES). ICP-AES uses inductively coupled plasma to produce excited atoms that emit electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength characteristic of a particular element. The intensity of this emission is indicative of the concentration of the element (iron in this case) within the sample. 

The sequence His-Cys-His has an extended chain conformation. In this sequence, the cysteine binds type 1 and the two histidines, two separate copper atoms of the trinuclear cluster, thus making the shortest distance from the type 1 copper to the trinuclear cluster 13 A. Within the cluster, the Cu-Cu distances are 3.4, 3.9, and 4 A. It should be noted that none of the histidines bridges the copper atoms, unlike SOD, in which a histidine bridges the copper and zinc. The pattern of histidine binding to the trinuclear cluster is rather clever two His-X-His pairs from separate domains, His-Cys-His (507-509) and His-Gly-His (106-108), bind the... 

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