[NewCandle] Size-Selective Reactivity of Aluminum Cluster Anions with Water

[Nick Reiter]

Hi Horace,

Thanks very much for this.  I brought it up over the phone with Sam yesterday, and he indicated that he had correspnded with the Castleman group a bit last year, but he as unaware of this particular work.  I want to re-grok their work a little more, but yeah, should certaily contact them.

Hey, on a related topic, I FINALLY sent a set of foil samples (with some control foil) out yesterday by mail to you.  No squiddies... I am going to have to make some more.  I apparently tossed the old rolls from the potassium iodide salt run that would have presumably still had some ont he foil.  No problem, just a delay - I have plenty of KI to re-do the run.

All the best,

nr
 

> You may want to communicate with this University of
> Pennsylvania group to tell them about your anomalous results
> not only with hydrogen generation, but radiation:
> 
> http://research.chem.psu.edu/awcgroup/Castleman%20Homepage.html
> 
> Note articles on Superatoms, Cluster Assemblies, and
> especially aluminum clusters.
> 
> This recent Science article shows why you and they might
> have a common interest:
> 
> From:
> 
> http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5913/492
> 
> 
> 
> Science 23 January 2009:
> Vol. 323. no. 5913, pp. 492 - 495
> DOI: 10.1126/science.1165884
> Prev | Table of Contents | Next
> REPORTS
> 
> Complementary Active Sites Cause Size-Selective Reactivity
> of Aluminum Cluster Anions with Water
> 
> Patrick J. Roach,1 W. Hunter Woodward,1 A. W. Castleman,
> Jr.,1* Arthur C. Reber,2 Shiv N. Khanna2
> 
> The reactions of metal clusters with small molecules often
> depend on cluster size. The selectivity of oxygen reactions
> with aluminum cluster anions can be well described within an
> electronic shell model; however, not all reactions are
> subject to the same fundamental constraints. We observed the
> size selectivity of aluminum cluster anion reactions with
> water, which can be attributed to the dissociative
> chemisorption of water at specific surface sites. The
> reactivity depends on geometric rather than electronic shell
> structure. Identical arrangements of multiple active sites
> in Al16–, Al17–, and Al18– result in the production of
> H2 from water.
> 
> 1 Departments of Chemistry and Physics, Pennsylvania State
> University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
> 2 Department of Physics, Virginia Commonwealth University,
> Richmond, VA 23284, USA.
> 
> * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: awc at psu.edu