Uptake and accommodation of water clusters by adamantane clusters in helium droplets: interplay between magic number clusters

Abstract

Double magic: 12 adamantane “nanodiamonds” surround, in an icosahedric arrangement, 21 water molecules that form a pentagon dodecahedral structure.

London dispersion dominating diamantane packing in helium nanodroplets

“…24 It was observed that smaller adamantane clusters can also uptake water molecules inside their aggregates, which leads to a subsequent erosion of the parent hydrocarbon cluster. 25 As already mentioned, this experimental observation is expected since water molecules form their own clusters via hydrogen bonds and therefore destroy a much loosely bound LD network that initially hosted them. Note, however, that hydration of the adamantane cluster (n = 13) first results in the replacement of an adamantane moiety with a water molecule conglomerate, (H 2 O) 21 , but manages to preserve the initial structural integrity of the system.…”

“…Our interest in LD interactions between diamondoids in a 3D environment was partially inspired by recent work of Scheier and coworkers, that offered insight into the aggregation behavior of the smallest diamondoid adamantane in helium nanodroplets. 24,25 Furthermore, the behavior and cluster formation of diamondoids in a 3D environment at extremely low temperatures and pressures is also of interest from the perspective of astrochemistry since recent reports confirmed the presence of diamondoid molecules in space and the HND environment can mimic such interstellar conditions. 26,27 Examples of other hydrocarbons and some other small molecules studied in HNDs exist, 3 e.g., methane, 28,29 ethane, 30 haloalkanes, 31,32 ethylene, 33 benzene, 34 fullerene, [35][36][37][38][39][40][41] alcohols and ethers, 42 methanol, 43 triphenylmethanol, 44 formamide, 45 etc.…”

Electronic spectroscopy of cationic adamantane clusters and dehydrogenated adamantane in helium droplets

“…The cluster formation of adamantane cations within helium droplets has been explored previously by our group, [49][50][51] employing time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Fig.…”

Helium Droplet Mass Spectrometry

“…All rights reserved preferred packing scheme of Ad clusters changes from icosahedral to fcc between n = 19 and 38. The study of Ad was extended with an investigation of HNDs codoped with Ad and water by Kranabetter et al [412]. The authors recorded mass spectra of both pure Ad .…”