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Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Preparation and Characterization of C60/Graphene Hybrid Nanostructures
Published on: May 15, 2018
Structures and bonding nature of small monoligated copper clusters (HCN-Cun, n = 1-3) through high-resolution
Paul L Stiles1, Roger E Miller
1Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
Abstract:
The structures, C-H stretching frequencies, and dipole moments of HCN-Cun (n = 1-3) clusters are determined through high-resolution infrared spectroscopy. The complexes are formed and probed within superfluid helium droplets, whereby the helium droplet beam is passed over a resistively heated crucible containing copper shot and then through a gas HCN pickup cell. All complexes are found to be bound to the nitrogen end of the HCN molecule and on the "atop site" of the copper cluster. Through the experimental C-H vibrational shifts of HCN-Cun and ab initio calculations, it was found that the HCN-metal interaction changes from a strong van der Waals bond in n = 1 to a partially covalent bond in HCN-Cu3. Comparisons with existing infrared data on copper surfaces show that the HCN-Cun bond must begin to weaken at very large copper cluster sizes, eventually returning to a van der Waals bond in the bulk copper surface case.
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