Ultraviolet photoactivation perturbs the metal-ligand interface of atomically precise nanoclusters

This study investigates the use of ultraviolet (UV) photoactivation to structurally characterize atomically precise clusters in the gas phase. UV photoactivation of negatively charged precursor ions generates electron photodetachment species in lower charge states. These ions dissociate through single ligand losses, a mechanism that differs notably from the well known dissociation pathways of 8-electron cluster ions caused by collisional activation with implications to photochemistry. Computations show that the photodetachment induced by UV photoactivation perturbs the metal-ligand interfaces, providing a mechanistic understanding of UV based dissociation processes across different cluster systems.