Abstract
SMALL metal clusters, containing of the order of 10 to 10,000 atoms, are of interest both for exploring the fundamental question of how atomic-scale properties develop into bulk properties and because such clusters are expected to have interesting optical, electronic and magnetic properties1. The expectation is that bulk-like metallic behaviour will become increasingly evident as the cluster size increases, but at what stage bulk properties appear is not yet clear. Here we present results of a study of the platinum cluster compound Pt309(Phen*)36O30±10 (refs 2–4), in which we use Mossbauer spectroscopy to investigate the bonding environment of the Pt atoms. Because Pt lacks a good Mossbauer isotope, we transform a fraction of the196Pt atoms in the clusters into Mössbauer nuclei197Au by neutron irradiation. The resulting spectra show that the inner (147–atom) core of the Pt cluster exhibits a metallic character like that in the bulk metal, whereas the surface atoms are not bulk-like. These bulk-like metallic properties may be acquired by metal-cluster cores as small as about 150 atoms.
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Mulder, F., Stegink, T., Theil, R. et al. Metallic behaviour in a Pt309 cluster revealed by 197Au Mössbauer spectroscopy. Nature 367, 716–718 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/367716a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/367716a0
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