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Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Diamondoid ether clusters in helium nanodroplets
Jasna Alić1, Roman Messner2, Marija Alešković1
1Department of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia. msekutor@irb.hr.
Abstract:
Diamondoid ethers were introduced into superfluid helium nanodroplets and the resulting clusters were analyzed by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Clusters of higher abundances (magic number clusters) were identified and the corresponding potential cluster geometries were obtained from GFN2-xTB and DFT computations. We found that the studied diamondoid ethers readily self-assemble in helium nanodroplets and that London dispersion attraction between hydrocarbon subunits acts as a driving force for cluster formation. On the other hand, hydrogen bonding between ether oxygens and trace water molecules fosters the eventual breakdown of the initial supramolecular aggregate.
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