Size-dependent stability toward dissociation and ligand binding energies of phosphine-ligated gold cluster ions
The stability of sub-nanometer size gold clusters ligated with organic molecules is of paramount importance to the scalable synthesis of monodisperse size-selected metal clusters with highly tunable chemical and physical properties. For the first time, a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR-MS) equipped with surface induced dissociation (SID) has been employed to investigate the time and collision energy resolved fragmentation behavior of cationic doubly charged gold clusters containing 7-9 gold atoms and 6-7 triphenylphosphine (TPP) ligands prepared by reduction synthesis in solution. The TPP ligated gold clusters are demonstrated to fragment through three primary dissociation pathways: (1) Loss of a neutral TPP ligand from the precursor gold cluster, (2) asymmetric fission and (3) symmetric fission and charge separation of the gold core resulting in formation of complementary pairs of singly charged fragment ions. Threshold energies and activation entropies of these fragmentation pathways have been determined employing Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) modeling of the experimental SID data. It is demonstrated that the doubly charged cluster ion containing eight gold atoms and six TPP ligands, (8,6)2+, exhibits exceptional stability compared to the other cationic gold clusters examined in this study due to its large ligand binding energy of 1.76 eV. Our findings demonstrate the dramatic effect of the size and extent of ligation on the gas-phase stability and preferred fragmentation pathways of small TPP-ligated gold clusters.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US), Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1164200
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-96760; 39717; KC0302020
- Journal Information:
- Chemical Science, 5:3275-3286, Journal Name: Chemical Science, 5:3275-3286
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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