From Metal Clusters to Cluster Metals

Abstract

Ligand stabilized full-shell clusters show a special stability and have been described for the magic numbers 13 and 55¹. On the other hand, there is no experimental information on the stability of naked full-shell clusters, presumably because there was no possibility to generate those clusters. But numerous papers occupy with the formation and stability of naked full-shell clusters from the theoretical point of view^2–12. Two-shell clusters of the type M₅₅L₁₂Cl_n (M = Au, Rh, L = P (C₆H₅) ₃, n = 6; M = Rh, Ru, L = P (tert-C₄H₉)₃, n = 20; M = Pt, L = As(tert-C₄H₉) ₃, n = 20) for the first time present the occasion of generating naked M₁₃ clusters by peeling off the outer metal shell together with the ligands. The destiny of these micro-clusters should easily been followed up, as only two routes for their stabilization seem open: either they degrade to form normal bulk metal or they aggregate to novel metal modifications with M₁₃ clusters as building blocks.