Metals clusters

Anisotropic Valence Orbital Manifolds in Coinage Metals and Other Post-Transition Elements 

Toroidal Trigonal Planar Toroidal Pentagonal Planar 

3M0O3 (A = K, Rb) shows a M-NM transition associated with charge density waves, nonohmic transport and quasi one-dimensional character (Schlenker et ai, 1985). Similar nonohmic transport is found in NbSc3 and Ta 3. 

As mentioned in Section 3.4, clusters of metal atoms of varying sizes can be prepared. The presence of alkali atom clusters in the vapour phase is well documented. Such clusters have a much lower ionization energy than that of an isolated atom and also have a high electron affinity. The probability of electron transfer is therefore considerably greater in a metal cluster. It is indeed known in the case of caesium that as the density of caesium increases (from isolated atoms in a low-density gas to a liquid), larger clusters form and charge-transfer becomes increasingly favoured as the density 

There are families of metal cluster compounds (Fig. 6.40) containing metal clusters surrounded by ligands (Lewis Green, 1982). In small cluster compounds, the electrons are paired, but in large clusters there will be closely spaced electronic levels, as in metal particles. In such clusters, quantum size effects would be expected. Benfield et al (1982) have found intrinsic paramagnetism in H20sio(CO)24 below 70K as expected of an osmium particle of approximate diameter of 10 A the excess paramagnetism increases with cluster size in osmium compounds (Johnson et al, 1985). 

Metal cluster compounds simulate surface species produced by the interaction of molecules with metal surfaces (Muetterties et al, 1979) and this is of value in understanding heterogeneous catalysis. The development of selective catalysts for the C, chemical industry employing CO (and possibly CO2) as the raw material has resulted in major efforts in metal cluster research. Criteria have been developed to distinguish between cluster catalysis and mononuclear catalysis. Typical of the catalysts investigated hitherto are [Ir4(CO),2. (PPh3)J where Ph = phenyl and X = 1, 2 or 3. 

---

Covalent. Formed by most of the non-metals and transition metals. This class includes such diverse compounds as methane, CH4 and iron carbonyl hydride, H2Fe(CO)4. In many compounds the hydrogen atoms act as bridges. Where there are more than one hydride sites there is often hydrogen exchange between the sites. Hydrogens may be inside metal clusters. 

PPha, pyridine) organic groups (olefines, aromatic derivatives) and also form other derivatives, e.g. halides, hydrides, sulphides, metal cluster compounds Compounds containing clusters of metal atoms linked together by covalent (or co-ordinate) bands, metaldehyde, (C2H40) ( = 4 or 6). A solid crystalline substance, sublimes without melting at I12 1I5" C stable when pure it is readily formed when elhanal is left in the presence of a catalyst at low temperatures, but has unpredictable stability and will revert to the monomer, ft is used for slug control and as a fuel. 

Small metal clusters are also of interest because of their importance in catalysis. Despite the fact that small clusters should consist of mostly surface atoms, measurement of the photon ionization threshold for Hg clusters suggest that a transition from van der Waals to metallic properties occurs in the range of 20-70 atoms per cluster [88] and near-bulk magnetic properties are expected for Ni, Pd, and Pt clusters of only 13 atoms [89] Theoretical calculations on Sin and other semiconductors predict that the stmcture reflects the bulk lattice for 1000 atoms but the bulk electronic wave functions are not obtained [90]. Bartell and co-workers [91] study beams of molecular clusters with electron dirfraction and molecular dynamics simulations and find new phases not observed in the bulk. Bulk models appear to be valid for their clusters of several thousand atoms (see Section IX-3). 

Much of the work done on metal clusters has been focused on the transition from cluster properties to bulk properties as the clusters become larger, e.g. the transition from quantum chemistry to band theory [127]. 

Dietz T G, Duncan M A, Powers D E and Smalley R E 1981 Laser production of supersonic metal cluster beams J. Chem. Rhys. 74 6511-12... 

Sellers H 1991 On modeling chemisorption processes with metal cluster systems. II. Model atomic potentials and site specificity of N atom chemisorption on Pd(111) Chem. Phys. Lett. 178 351-7... 

Figure Cl. 1.1. Schematic of a typical laser vaporization supersonic metal cluster source using a pulsed laser and a pulsed helium carrier gas.

The thennal evaporation source was the earliest used to produce metal clusters in the gas phase [H, 12 and 13], mostly for clusters of the alkalis and other low melting point materials. In this technique, a bulk sample is simply... 

Cl.1.3.1 SIMPLE METAL CLUSTERS AND THE ELECTRON SHELL MODEL... 

The spherical shell model can only account for tire major shell closings. For open shell clusters, ellipsoidal distortions occur [47], leading to subshell closings which account for the fine stmctures in figure C1.1.2(a ). The electron shell model is one of tire most successful models emerging from cluster physics. The electron shell effects are observed in many physical properties of tire simple metal clusters, including tlieir ionization potentials, electron affinities, polarizabilities and collective excitations [34]. 

The microscopic understanding of tire chemical reactivity of surfaces is of fundamental interest in chemical physics and important for heterogeneous catalysis. Cluster science provides a new approach for tire study of tire microscopic mechanisms of surface chemical reactivity [48]. Surfaces of small clusters possess a very rich variation of chemisoriDtion sites and are ideal models for bulk surfaces. Chemical reactivity of many transition-metal clusters has been investigated [49]. Transition-metal clusters are produced using laser vaporization, and tire chemical reactivity studies are carried out typically in a flow tube reactor in which tire clusters interact witli a reactant gas at a given temperature and pressure for a fixed period of time. Reaction products are measured at various pressures or temperatures and reaction rates are derived. It has been found tliat tire reactivity of small transition-metal clusters witli simple molecules such as H2 and NH can vary dramatically witli cluster size and stmcture [48, 49, M and 52]. 

Figure Cl. 1.3. Relative reactivity of transition-metal clusters with H2 (full curves, log scale) and tire promotion...

The reactivity of size-selected transition-metal cluster ions has been studied witli various types of mass spectrometric teclmiques [1 ]. Fourier-transfonn ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) is a particularly powerful teclmique in which a cluster ion can be stored and cooled before experimentation. Thus, multiple reaction steps can be followed in FT-ICR, in addition to its high sensitivity and mass resolution. Many chemical reaction studies of transition-metal clusters witli simple reactants and hydrocarbons have been carried out using FT-ICR [49, 58]. 

One of tire interesting aspects of transition-metal clusters is tlieir novel magnetic properties [91, 92, 93 and 94l]. ... 

Sattler K, Muhibach J and Recknagel E 1980 Generation of metal clusters containing 2 to 500 atoms Phys. Rev. Lett. 45 821... 

Leopold D G, Ho J and Lineberger W C 1987 Photoelectron spectroscopy of mass-selected metal cluster anions. I. Cuji, n = 1 -10 J. Chem. Phys. 86 1715... 

Knickelbein M B 1999 Reactions of metal cluster/4rm. Rev. Rhys. Chem. 50 79... 

Concelcao J, Laaksonen R T, Wang L S, Guo T, Nordlander P and Smalley R E 1995 Photoelectron spectroscopy of transition metal clusters correlation of valence electronic structure to reactivity Rhys. Rev. B 51 4668... 

Parks E K, Welller B H, Bechthold P S, Hoffman W F, NIeman G C, Pobo L G and Riley S J 1988 Chemical probes of metal cluster structure reactions of Iron clusters with hydrogen, ammonia and water J. Chem. Rhys. 88 1622... 

Berg C, Beyer M, Achatz U, Joes S, Niedner-Schatteburg G and Bondybey V 1998 Effect of charge upon metal cluster chemistry reactions of Nb and Rh anions and cations with benzene J. Chem. Rhys. 108 5398... 

Yang S and Knickelbein M B 1990 Photoionization studies of transition metal clusters ionization potentials for Fe... 

Wang L S, Cheng H S and Fan J 1995 Photoeieotron spectroscopy of size-selected transition metal clusters Kc , n = 3-24 J. Chem. Phys. 102 9480... 

---