Journal of Physical Chemistry, Vol.99, No.29, 11376-11386, 1995
Structures and Isomerization of Lac(N)(+) Clusters
Injected ion drift tube techniques have been used to examine the structures and to study the isomerization of LaCn+ (n = 2-90) clusters. Three families of metal-containing carbon rings ("ring Ia", "ring Ib", and "ring II"), metal-containing graphite sheets, and metallofullerenes have been resolved. Several plausible geometries with similar mobilities can be suggested for all of the ring isomers. The most likely geometries are a La inserted into a carbon ring (ring Ia), a La inside a carbon ring (ring Ib), and various LaCn and C-m rings fused together (ring II). The relative abundances of the graphite sheet and the metallofullerene isomers are substantially larger than for the pure carbon clusters. Both endohedral and non-endohedral LaCn+ metallofullerenes have been resolved. LaC36+ and all LaCn+ fullerenes with n = 38-90 are found to be endohedral, while LaC29+-LaC35+ fullerenes are non-endohedral. Annealing studies show that LaCn+ ring II isomers with an even number of carbon atoms convert into ring Ia isomers, while the odd-numbered ring II isomers convert into ring Ib isomers. For larger clusters, fullerenes and graphite sheets are formed when the rings are annealed. The efficiency of this annealing process in the LaCn+ system is much larger than in the C-n(+) system, although the activation energies appear to be approximately the same. Studies of the dissociation of LaCn+ show that loss of LaC4+ is generally the dominant dissociation process for the LaCn+ rings with an even number of carbon atoms, while loss of C-3 is also important for the odd-numbered ones.
Keywords:ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETRY;CARBON RINGS;IONIZATION-POTENTIALS;FULLERENES;REACTIVITY;CATIONS;ATOMS;DISSOCIATION;NANOTUBES;CHEMISTRY