Potential to stabilize 16-vertex tetrahedral coinage-metal cluster architectures related to Au20
Franck Gam1, Ramiro Arratia-Perez, Samia Kahlal
1Doctorado en Fisicoquímica Molecular, Universidad Andres Bello, República 275, Santiago, Chile. rarratia@unab.cl.
Abstract:
DFT calculations were carried out on a series of tetrahedral 16-atom superatomic clusters having 20 or 18 jellium electrons (je) and structurally related to Au20, namely, [M16]4-/2- (M = Cu, Ag, and Au) and [M4'M12'']0/2+ (M' = Zn, Cd, Hg; M'' = Cu, Ag, Au). While the bare homonuclear 20-je species required further stabilization to be isolated, their 18-je counterparts exhibited better stability. Lowering the electron count led to structural modification from a compact structure (20-je) to a hollow sphere (18-je). Such a change could be potentially controlled by tuning redox properties. Among the 20-je heteronuclear [M4'M12''] neutral series, [Zn4Au12] appeared to meet the best stability criteria, but their 18-je relatives [M4'M12'']+, in particular [Zn4Cu12]2+ and [Cd4Au12]2+, offered better opportunities for obtaining stable species. Such species exhibit the smallest models for the M(111) surface of fcc metals, which expose designing rules towards novel high-dopant-ratio clusters as building blocks of nanostructured materials.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Crystal Field Theory - Tetrahedral and Square Planar Complexes
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
Cattell's 16 Personality Factors
In contrast, source traits are the...
Bonding in Metals
Metal-Ligand Bonds
In these complexes, transition metals form coordinate covalent bonds, a kind of Lewis acid-base interaction in which both of the electrons in the bond are contributed by a donor (Lewis base) to an electron acceptor (Lewis acid). The Lewis acid in...
Nuclear Stability
To hold positively charged protons together...
RNA Stability


