| A combination of mass spectrometry, anion photoelectron spectroscopy and theory were employed to study the electronic, geometric and reactive properties of a number of different cluster systems. A special emphasis was placed on scouting for those particular cluster compositions that show signs of enhanced stability. Those clusters could potentially be used as building blocks of cluster-assembled materials. The studied systems include aluminum hydrides, lanthanide-silicon mixed cluster, platinum-lead clusters and Al13 -. Among aluminum hydrides an entire family of previously unknown closo-alanes with a general formula AlnHn+2 (4 ≤ n ≤ 8) had been discovered. They exhibit signs of substantial stability and are shown to follow the Wade's rule for closo-alanes (Chapter 3). In the studies of lanthanide-silicon, LnSin- (3 ≤ n ≤ 13) clusters, lanthanide atoms were observed to adopt low oxidation numbers even in the presence of a strongly interacting silicon environment. The implied limited participation of lanthanide atoms' f-electrons in bonding with the silicon stands in stark contrast to the d-electrons of the transition metal atoms. The result raises prospects for magnetic, silicon-based clusters (Chapter 4). A series of reactive studies of Al13- a well-known magic cluster, and Aln- cluster anions in general were conducted to better understand their size-specific behavior. Size-selective etching of Al11- and Al12- by NH3 has been attributed to a diminished barrier for conversion of a physisorbed precursor into the chemisorbed adduct in case of these two clusters. Al13- shows few signs of reactivity. The well-documented inertness of Al13- towards O 2 has been traced back to the triplet state of oxygen. Due to the need to conserve spin along the reaction coordinate, the number of viable reaction channels that have a low barrier is greatly reduced (Chapter 5). Lastly, a building block of a recently synthesized cluster-assembled material, (Pt Pb 12)2-, was studied together with its monoanion, (Pt Pb 12)-, and the PtPbn- (2 ≤ n ≤ 12) cluster series in general. The electronic structure of PtPb 122-, determined via photoelectron spectroscopy of K +(PtPb122-), is in agreement with predictions of group theory for an icosahedral Pb122- cage with an endohedral Pt atom (Chapter 6). |
