Ion–Molecule Reactions in Helium Nanodroplets Doped with C₆₀ and Water Clusters

Abstract

Weltraumchemie: Die Bindung zwischen C60+ und (H2O)4 in einem geladenen Komplex aus C60 und dem H2O‐Tetramer in Heliumnanotröpfchen (siehe Bild) ist überraschend schwach. Doppelt geladene C602+‐Intermediate könnten durch Ladungstransfer mit He+ entstehen; sie können Ion‐Molekül‐Reaktionen auslösen, die bei der Molekülsynthese in interstellaren Wolken und im Sonnennebel eine Rolle spielen könnten.

Methane Adsorption on Aggregates of Fullerenes: Site‐Selective Storage Capacities and Adsorption Energies

“…We have recently designed a new method to study adsorption of atoms and polar or nonpolar molecules on C 60 or C 70 by doping cold (0.37 K), superfluid helium nanodroplets30 with fullerene plus H 2 O, NH 3 , He, H 2 , CH 4 , or other molecules 31–33. Nonpolar species such as He, H 2 , CH 4 show a propensity to form a commensurate layer where each carbon hexagon and pentagon adsorbs one particle although He and H 2 are sufficiently small to allow for adsorption of additional particles into the first adsorption layer.…”

Cluster cross sections from pickup measurements: Are the established methods consistent?

“…1 Since then it has been developed into a very powerful tool in the cluster science: especially numerous experiments with large helium clusters use this technique [2][3][4] to study the spectroscopy of molecules [5][6][7][8][9][10] and their reactions [11][12][13][14][15] in the cold superfluid environment of the helium nanodroplets. Here we focus on the pickup to argon clusters which was also exploited in many studies, e.g., for cluster isolated chemical reactions on large Ar clusters in the group of Mestdagh 16,17 and others.…”

Pickup and reactions of molecules on clusters relevant for atmospheric and interstellar processes

“…The pickup technique has been used since the 1980s 82 for doping clusters with different molecules as the cluster beam passes through a diluted gas and the gas molecules are embedded in the clusters upon sticking collisions. It has been exploited especially in experiments with He-nanodroplets, where numerous examples exist, e.g., for spectroscopy, 15,18,19,83,84 reactions, 20,21,[85][86][87][88][89][90] and generation of clusters 91 in the cold superfluid environment of He-nanodroplets. Interesting applications have recently been developed, such as the decoration and visualization of superfluid vorticies with atoms in He-nanodroplets.…”