Rostock 2019 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 19: Cluster III (joint session MO/A)

MO 19.2: Talk

Thursday, March 14, 2019, 11:00–11:15, S HS 001 Biologie

Activation of Methane by Free Gold Clusters: Ion-Trap Kinetics, IR-Spectroscopy, and Ab Initio Theory — •Thorsten Bernhardt¹, Sandra Lang¹, Joost Bakker², Robert Barnett³, and Uzi Landman³ — ¹Institute of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, University of Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany — ²Institute for Molecules and Materials, FELIX Laboratory, 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands — ³School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0430, USA

Amongst all the metals gold exhibits the least inclination to undergo chemical reactions with other elements. It is therefore even more surprising that few nanometer sized gold particles and gold clusters consisting of very few atoms display excellent catalytic properties. In order to demonstrate the ability of small gold clusters to activate methane, we previously performed gas phase reaction kinetics experiments in an octopole ion trap. These experimental studies revealed the particular catalytic properties of the gold dimer to activate methane and to convert two methane molecules to ethylene at thermal reaction conditions. These experiments have now been complemented by infrared multi photon dissociation experiments employing the free electron laser FELICE at the University of Nijmegen. These spectroscopy investigations demonstrated that the interaction of methane with small gold cluster cations leads to selective C-H-bond dissociation and the formation of hydrido-methyl complexes.