Structure and reactivity of metal clusters of the platinum group

铂族金属广泛用于多相催化应用。通常这些催化剂还含有纳米分散形式的金属。该项目旨在实验研究仅包含少数原子的非常小的金属颗粒的结构特性，簇及其化学行为。不同类型的光谱将被应用于获得更详细的信息的几何和电子结构的小金属簇的钌，铑，铱和铂在气相中。特别是，我们将应用光激发，阴离子光电子和红外光谱。这些补充方法的结合将提供一套全面的参考数据来测试和进一步开发用于描述铂族簇的理论方法。第二个主要重点将是甲烷活化这些集群的调查。使用配体交换与氩原子，我们最近已经能够制备配合物的铂簇与分子，但强烈激活，甲烷。我们现在提出一个更详细的调查，这样的配合物也为其他金属和诱导H-转移反应的金属探测势能面（S）相关的C-H键断裂在这些配合物。这些研究在一个良好表征的模型系统可以提供前所未有的洞察力的C-H活化机制的小金属颗粒。

Metals of the platinum group are widely used in heterogeneous catalytic applications. Often these catalysts also contain the metal in nano-dispersed form. This project aims for an experimental investigation of the structural properties of very small metal particles that contain only a few atoms, clusters, and their chemical behaviour. Different types of spectroscopy will be applied to obtain more detailed information on the geometric and electronic structure of small metal clusters of ruthenium, rhodium, iridium, and platinum in the gas phase. In particular we will apply optical excitation, anion photo electron, and infrared spectroscopy. The combination of these complimentary methods shall give a comprehensive set of reference data to test and further develop theoretical methods used for the description of the platinum group clusters. A second major focus will be the investigation of methane activation by these clusters. Using ligand exchange with argon atoms we have been recently able to prepare complexes of platinum clusters with molecular, but strongly activated, methane. We now propose a more detailed investigation of such complexes also for other metals and to induce H-transfer reactions to the metal to probe the potential energy surface(s) relevant for C-H bond breaking in these complexes. These studies on a well-characterizable model system can give unprecedented insights into the mechanism of C-H activation on small metal particles.