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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Chemisorption of hydrogen on charged vanadium clusters

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Abstract The chemisorption of hydrogen on positively charged vanadium clusters, V n + ( n = 1–17), was studied by measuring reaction rates and saturation coverages. Vanadium clusters are produced by laser vaporization and are injected into a Penning trap. Rates of the reaction V n + +H 2 → V n + H 2 are measured by axial ejection of all ions out of the trap after variable storage times and subsequent time-of-flight detection. An odd-even effect of the reaction rate is observed with odd clusters being more reactive. Clusters with low reactivity are found to be highly stable, as reflected by the respective separation energies of atoms. The number of adsorbed hydrogen atoms, m , is determined under saturation conditions by detection of the ions V n + H m . For the larger clusters, the ratio of hydrogen to vanadium atoms approaches a value of 1.5.