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Mass spectrometric and first principles study of Al$_n$C$^-$ clusters

Jijun Zhao·Bingchen Liu·Huajin Zhai·Rufang Zhou·Guoquan Ni·Zhizhan Xu
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Abstract

We study the carbon-dope aluminum clusters by using time-of-flight mass spectrum experiments and {\em ab initio} calculations. Mass abundance distributions are obtained for anionic aluminum and aluminum-carbon mixed clusters. Besides the well-known magic aluminum clusters such as Al$_{13}^-$ and Al$_{23}^-$, Al$_7$C$^-$ cluster is found to be particularly stable among those Al$_n$C$^-$ clusters. Density functional calculations are performed to determine the ground state structures of Al$_n$C$^-$ clusters. Our results show that the Al$_7$C$^-$ is a magic cluster with extremely high stability, which might serve as building block of the cluster-assembled materials.

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Jijun Zhao, Bingchen Liu, Huajin Zhai, Rufang Zhou, Guoquan Ni, Zhizhan Xu. 2001-12-18. Mass spectrometric and first principles study of Al$_n$C$^-$ clusters. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0038-1098(02)00210-7

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