Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.108, No.19, 4202-4210, 2004
Infrared spectra of dialanes in solid hydrogen
Laser-ablated Al atoms react with H-2 during co-deposition at 3.5 K to produce AlH and smaller amounts of AlH2 and AlH3. Ultraviolet irradiations markedly increase the yields of AlH2 and particularly AlH3, which is characterized as the hypervalent (H-2)AlH3 complex in solid hydrogen. Simultaneous annealing to 5-6 K with concurrent photolysis allows a 4-fold increase in Al2H6 absorption intensities. New absorptions are assigned to the Al2H5 radical with the dibridged structure. A neon overcoat extends the annealing range for solid hydrogen and facilitates the observation of trialane Al3H9. The AlH4-and AlH3-[AlD4-, AlD3-, and AlD2-] anions and Al+(H-2)(n)[Al+(D-2)(n)] cations are observed in solid hydrogen [deuterium] and in solid neon. Dialane is prepared in solid neon with dilute Al and H-2 on lambda > 240 nm irradiation and not on annealing, which suggests activation energy for the alane dimerization reaction.