halogen
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Superatoms
I remember reading a brief bit about superatoms particularly clusters of aluminium that act as one atom chemically. Does anyone know anything more
about this. It seems they are mostly oxygen resistant and act like "superhalogens" whatever that means. Most important, how are they made?
F. de Lalande and M. Prud'homme showed that a mixture of boric oxide and sodium chloride is decomposed in a stream of dry air or oxygen at a red heat
with the evolution of chlorine.
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DeAdFX
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I was kind of intrested in these super atoms but I gave up fairly fast. The only thing I could find were PR statements which provided nothing
"usefuL".
I think one of the pr statements provided a vague synthesis. Like needing aluminum(no shit) and some other stuff.. Kinda anaglous(sp) to the hey
GUYS!! I know a high explosive that involves acetone, H2O2 and HCl kinda shit the kewl sites spew outta there ass.
[Edited on 11-1-2006 by DeAdFX]
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DrP
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This site - (http://www.discover.com/issues/apr-05/rd/super-atoms/) - seems to suggest that they have been made by 'laser vapourisation' - but it doesn't say
much.
QUOTE:
To create the clusters, Castleman and his colleagues used a process called laser vaporization. A high-energy laser coaxed “seeds” from an aluminum
rod into merging by trapping them in a pressurized stream of helium gas.
- some other sites I looked at mentioned Si and C clustering.
Bit off topic maybe but - my friend used silver 'island' clusters on a glass slide to act as amplifiers for Raman spectroscopy. I think that the
theory behind this was that if the wavelength of the surface phonons were the same/similar to the size of the cluster, then the electronic structure
in the cluster resonated under the incident radiation to amplify the Raman scattering. He was actually looking at the raman spec of nicotine
amounst other things - a ran a mile when he got out a bottle of pure nicotine - he had no fume cupboard and decided he'd hold his breath whilst
preparing the sample in a small room with no ventilation!
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Morgan
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An Alchemist's Dream: Superatoms Mimic Elements
http://www.physorg.com/news199634925.html
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Morgan
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Just a few crumbs/tidbits.
"Schmidt-Ott hopes to find atom clusters with new unique magnetic, optical or electrical properties, which would also be stable enough to create
crystals or other solid forms. Potential applications include catalysts in fuel and extra-conductive crystals."
http://www.physorg.com/news134129791.html
Reader comments.
"delocalization. what makes this more than just "metal molecules" is the fact that the nuclei are loosely associating with one another, held by a
delocalized electron cloud, resulting in properties similar to that of an atom with the equivalent effective nuclear mass as that of the sum of the
cluster. like it says, if crystallization can occur, you've got the potential for cheap heavy catalysts."
"It sounds to me more like a molecule of Ag9 and Ag13 etc.
IMHO the word "super atom" implies fusion at the nuclear level. Aren't these just molecules of Silver that have different properties than silver in
its natural state? I recall sulphur has very different properties depending on its molecular form."
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Mixell
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Morgan, not exactly, the difference between molecules and super atoms is that molecules are bonded via the electrons, but super atoms posses also some
sort of nucleus bonding, you can say its some kind of a molecule, but in reality those clusters behave more like atoms than molecules.
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blogfast25
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In other words it's a quantum system, made up of several atoms 'sharing' an electron cloud. Sounds much like a molecule to me, albeit an exotic one...
I hope it doesn't all end up like the infamous 'polywater'!
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Wizzard
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Isnt this also what a Bose-Einstien condensate does?
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woelen
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No, a bose-einstein condensate is supercooled matter (just a little above 0 K) such that the wave functions of the atoms spread out in space and many
of these wave functions combine to make a single big wave function, which gives the material of a kind of strange fluid. These bose-einstein
condensates are not molecules. They only can exist at very low temperatures, where the energy of the atoms becomes very low and hence their wave-like
behavior exhibits unusual large wave lengths.
The 'super atoms' mentioned here are molecules, just as blogfast25 says. They, however, have exotic modes of bonding.
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Morgan
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"It is fascinating to imagine that new periodic tables of superatoms might be drawn and that this may lead to a new chemistry of superatoms ..."
Platinum nanoclusters go magnetic
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/26782
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Morgan
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"These findings support the contention that there should be no limitation in finding clusters, which mimic virtually all members of the periodic
table."
Multiple valence superatoms
http://www.pnas.org/content/103/49/18405.abstract?maxtoshow=...
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Morgan
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Quote: Originally posted by Mixell  | | Morgan, not exactly, the difference between molecules and super atoms is that molecules are bonded via the electrons, but super atoms posses also some
sort of nucleus bonding, you can say its some kind of a molecule, but in reality those clusters behave more like atoms than molecules.
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I mentioned both sides in the reader comments just to present opposing viewpoints. Allotropes seem akin to superatoms even if they aren't considered
so.
"Allotropes are different structural forms of the same element and can exhibit quite different physical properties and chemical behaviours. The change
between allotropic forms is triggered by the same forces that affect other structures, i.e. pressure, light, and temperature. Therefore the stability
of the particular allotropes depends on particular conditions."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superatom
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blogfast25
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"It is fascinating to imagine that new periodic tables of superatoms might be drawn and that this may lead to a new chemistry of superatoms,
offering a fantastic perspective for the future of young chemists," he added.
Hmmm… I hope they'll still concentrate on getting the simpler little critters to do what they’re supposed to do…
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