0000000000419382
AUTHOR
Bernd A. Huber
Isomer effects in fragmentation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
We have observed significant differences in the fragmentation patterns of isomeric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) cations following collisions with helium atoms at center-of-mass energies around 100 eV. This is in contrast to the situation at other collision energies or in photo-absorption experiments where isomeric effects are very weak and where the lowest-energy dissociation channels (H- and C2H2-loss) domihate in statistical fragmentation processes. In the 100 eV range, non-statistical fragmentation also competes and is uniquely linked to losses of single carbon atoms (CHx-losses). We find that such CHx-losses are correlated with the ionic ground state energy within a given group…
Liquid-liquid phase coexistence in gold clusters. 2D or not 2D?
The thermodynamics of gold cluster anions (${\mathrm{Au}}_{N}^{\ensuremath{-}}$, $N=11,\dots{},14$) is investigated using quantum molecular dynamics. Our simulations suggest that ${\mathrm{Au}}_{N}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ may exhibit a novel, freestanding planar liquid phase which dynamically coexists with a normal three-dimensional liquid. Upon cooling with experimentally realizable cooling rates, the entropy-favored three-dimensional liquid clusters often supercool and solidify into the ``wrong'' dimensionality. This indicates that experimental validation of theoretically predicted ${\mathrm{Au}}_{N}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ ground states might be more complicated than hitherto expected.
Oxidation of magnesia-supported Pd-clusters leads to the ultimate limit of epitaxy with a catalytic function
Oxide-supported transition-metal clusters and nanoparticles have attracted significant attention owing to their important role as components of model catalysts, sensors, solar cells and magnetic recording devices. For small clusters, functionality and structure are closely interrelated. However, knowledge of the structure of the bare cluster is insufficient as the interaction with the chemical environment might cause drastic structural changes. Here we show by ab initio simulations based on the density functional theory that the reaction with molecular oxygen transforms small, non-crystalline, magnesia-supported Pd-clusters to crystalline Pd(x)O(y) nano-oxide clusters that are in epitaxy wi…
Oxidation of small gas phase Pd clusters: A density functional study
The adsorption sites of O2 on neutral PdN clusters (N = 1–4) were studied using spin density functional theory. Only for Pd1O2 molecular adsorption is found to be favorable. For Pd2–4O2 dissociative adsorption with the oxygen sitting on Pd bridge sites is preferred. Most Pd clusters remain in the same high spin states found for pure gas phase Pd clusters. Only the ground state of Pd4O2 increase its spin from a triplet to a quintet state. For molecular adsorption the O–O bond gets activated to a superoxo-like state.
Fragmentation of anthracene C14H10, acridine C13H9N and phenazine C12H8N2 ions in collisions with atoms
International audience; We report experimental total, absolute, fragmentation cross sections for anthracene C14H10, acridine C13H9N, and phenazine C12H8N2 ions colliding with He at center-of-mass energies close to 100 eV. In addition, we report results for the same ions colliding with Ne, Ar, and Xe at higher energies. The total fragmentation cross sections for these three ions are the same within error bars for a given target. The measured fragment mass distributions reveal significant contributions from both delayed (≫10−12 s) statistical fragmentation processes as well as non-statistical, prompt (∼10−15 s), single atom knockout processes. The latter dominate and are often followed by sec…
Size-Dependent Structural Evolution and Chemical Reactivity of Gold Clusters
Ground-state structures and other experimentally relevant isomers of Au(15) (-) to Au(24) (-) clusters are determined through joint first-principles density functional theory and photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Subsequent calculations of molecular O(2) adsorption to the optimal cluster structures reveal a size-dependent reactivity pattern that agrees well with earlier experiments. A detailed analysis of the underlying electronic structure shows that the chemical reactivity of the gold cluster anions can be elucidated in terms of a partial-jellium picture, where delocalized electrons occupying electronic shells move over the ionic skeleton, whose geometric structure is strongly infl…
Nonstatistical fragmentation of large molecules
International audience; We present experimental evidence for the dominance of prompt single-atom knockout in fragmenting collisions between large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon cations and He atoms at center-of-mass energies close to 100 eV. Such nonstatistical processes are shown to give highly reactive fragments. We argue that nonstatistical fragmentation is dominant for any sufficiently large molecular system under similar conditions.