Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 25: Novel Experimental Approaches

MO 25.5: Talk

Friday, March 15, 2024, 12:00–12:15, HS 3044

Investigation on the dynamics of single atom catalysis in superfluid helium nanodroplets — •Wentao Chen, Brendan Wouterlood, and Frank Stienkemeier — Institute of Physics, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg

We introduce a new experimental approach on the dynamics of single atom catalysis in superfluid helium nanodroplets. Single-atom catalysts have recently emerged as a new type of catalysts which are comprised of one metal atom and has different catalytic properties compared to bulk-particle catalysts. The common way to form single-atom catalysts is to isolate a single metal atom on a supporting surface, which makes it difficult to characterize the catalytic activity of the single atom and separate the influence of the surface. Superfluid helium nanodroplets can be an ideal tool to form the isolated molecule-metal atom complexes by doping the reactant molecule and the metal atom successively. Specifically, we were able to form 1,8-octanediol- Aun(n=0-2) complexes without a supporting surface by sequentially doping octanediol and a gold atom in helium droplets. After ionizing the complexes by electron impact and comparing the fragment, it has been found that the complexes with Au atoms prominently produce C2H4+ in this dissociative reaction, while the complexes without Au atoms have more diverse fragments: C2H4+, HCO+ and CH2OH+. We plan to use femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy and photoelectron-photoion coincidence methods to study the real-time dynamics of the octanediol- Aun complex during the reaction.

Keywords: helium droplet; single atom catalysis