Size and composition dependent reaction kinetics and femtosecond photodissociation dynamics of noble metal cluster complexes [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Denisia Maria Popolan

Size and composition dependent reaction kinetics and femtosecond photodissociation dynamics of noble metal cluster complexes Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades Dr. rer. nat. der Fakultät für Naturwissenschaften der Universität Ulm vorgelegt von Denisia Maria Popolan aus Brad, Rumänien 2010 Amtierender Dekan: Prof. Dr. Axel Groß 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Thorsten M. Bernhardt 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Harold Jones Tag der Promotion: 28.01.2011 In loving memory of my beloved mommy … Abstract The aim of the present work was the investigation of the size and composition dependent chemistry of free, mass-selected gold, silver, and binary silver-gold clusters. It had been demonstrated previously that these clusters display unexpected size-dependent catalytic activity when deposited on metal oxide substrates. These observations raised questions about the intrinsic properties of these clusters and how they interact with catalytically relevant ligands. This thesis approaches these issues from two fronts: (i) by probing the reactivity of + + +mass-selected Ag , Au , and Ag Au nanoclusters in the gas phase under well defined n m n mreaction conditions and (ii) by studying the femtosecond-laser photodissociation of their complexes with molecular ligands.