Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.113, No.16, 6579-6584, 2000
Reactions of iron clusters with oxygen and ethylene: Observation of particularly stable species
Iron clusters have been produced by CO2-laser-induced decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl in a flow reactor. The absorption of CO2 laser photons was achieved by using SF6 as a sensitizer. By adding an oxidizing gas, N2O, or a hydrocarbon, C2H4, molecules which are also dissociated in the laser field, the iron clusters may react with several radicals. The as-synthesized species are extracted from the reaction zone by a conical nozzle and expanded into the source chamber of a cluster beam apparatus where they are analyzed with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. In the experiment with N2O, we observe a magic peak at m=856 amu which can be readily assigned to the particularly stable Fe13O8 cluster. If C2H4 is added to the reactant gas, the mass spectrum reveals a magic peak at mass m=884 amu. Using deuterated ethylene, the magic peak shifts by 12 amu to larger masses, indicating that the magic cluster contains 12 hydrogen atoms. With the given restrictions, we readily derive the molecular formula Fe13C12H12. Chemical stability and symmetry considerations suggest that the detailed chemical formula of the magic cluster is Fe-13(C2H2)(6) and that its structure corresponds to a Fe-13 icosahedron with six HC=CH or C=CH2 groups bound to six pairs of the 12 iron surface atoms.