Ligated Metal and Metal Oxide Clusters: Structures, Energetics and Reactivity
Abstract
Over the past two decades there has been an increasing interest in the generation and characterization of materials at the nanoscale. One of the principal drivers of these studies has been the fact that many of these new materials have unique and potentially transformative properties in the areas of catalysis, optoelectronics, coatings and many other areas. Of course another driver is to explore and understand these new systems at a fundamental level. We have been involved in nano-chemistry for many years both in the self-assembly of polymeric and biological macromolecules and in the generation, structure and reactivity of metal-based clusters. The current proposal focuses on metallic clusters of both coinage metals and transition metals. Our emphasis will be on ligation of metal clusters, building on our earlier work that showed measurement of sequential ligand binding energies and entropies is informative of bothinitial cluster structure and on ligand-driven structural transformations. In addition, we will use novel ion mobility-based mass spectrometric methods to measure ligated cluster cross sections and with the aid of modeling use these to directly determine cluster structures. Both of these kinds of measurements will be done on a newly designed and constructed instrument funded by a DURIP grant. In a new departure we will collaborate with Prof. Michael Duncan at the University of Georgia who is involved in generating macroscopic amounts of stabilized nanocluster systems. His current focus is on ligated metal oxide clusters. These systems are excellent fits for our new instrument and we should be able to both rationalize why currently used ligands are effective and to evaluate new oxide and ligand systems for synthesis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 02, 2017
- Source ID
- FA95501710159
Entities
People
- Michael T. Bowers
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of California, Santa Barbara