Synthesis of mixed hypermetallic oxide BaOCa + from laser-cooled reagents in an atom-ion hybrid trap
Abstract
The periodic table is an excellent predictor of element ratios in chemical compounds that form at temperatures that we commonly experience, give or take a factor of 10. Strange things start happening at hot and cold extremes, though. Puri et al. take advantage of extreme cold to observe the formation of the BaOCa + ion, an electron-deficient alternative to conventional binary barium or calcium oxides. They first prepared cold barium methoxide ions and then exposed them to calcium atoms cooled to thousandths of a kelvin. Mass spectral and theoretical analyses revealed a barrierless reaction pathway in which triplet-state calcium displaces the methyl group.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 29, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aan4701
Entities
People
- Arthur G. Suits
- Christian Schneider
- Eric R Hudson
- Ionel Simbotin
- John A. Montgomery
- Michael Mills
- Prateek Puri
- Robin Cote
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- National Science Foundation
- University of California
- University of Connecticut
- University of Missouri