Metal cluster-rare gas van der Waals complexes: Microscopic models of physisorption

摘要

The first examples of metal cluster-rare gas van der Waals complexes have been produced using a molecular beam technique, providing novel microscopic models of rare gas physisorption phenomena that occur at low temperatures on extended metal surfaces. These studies show that the formation efficiency of these complexes vary dramatically with the number of metal atoms in the cluster. An interesting example is provided by iron clusters, in which the 13-atom iron cluster is relatively inert toward complexation with krypton atoms, whereas the neighboring 12- and 14-atom clusters form krypton adducts readily. Such results provide valuable insights into the surface topology (i.e., ''smoothness'' or ''roughness'') of metal clusters, which may in turn aid in developing a detailed microscopic understanding of related systems of technological interest, ranging from heterogeneous catalysts to cluster-assembled materials.