Probing the Structure of Gas-Phase Metallic Clusters via Ligation Energetics: Sequential Addition of C₂H₄ to Ag_m⁺ (<i>m</i> = 3−7)

Abstract

A new method that utilizes ligation to probe geometries of clusters in the gas-phase has been developed. This technique bases structural assignments on thermodynamic quantities obtained for sequential ligand additions to a bare cluster. The information is obtained from temperature-dependent equilibrium data. This method is also sensitive to changes in bare cluster conformations that occur as a result of ligand addition, and the results can be fine-tuned by choosing ligands that appropriately adjust cluster-ligand binding energies.