Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.121, No.33, 7674-7681, 1999
Xe-129 NMR spectroscopy of metal carbonyl clusters and metal clusters in zeolite NaY
[Ir-4(CO)(12)] and [Ir-6(CO)(16)] were synthesized in the pores of zeolite NaY by reductive carbonylation of sorbed [Ir(CO)(2)(acac)], and [Rh-6(CO)(16)] was similarly synthesized from [Rh(CO)(2)(acac)], The supported metal carbonyl clusters were decarbonylated to give supported clusters modeled on the basis of extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra as Ir-4, Ir-6, and Rh-6, respectively. The supported metal carbonyl clusters and the supported metal clusters formed by their decarbonylation were investigated by Xe-129 NMR spectroscopy at temperatures in the range of 100-305 K. As the temperature increased, the chemical shift decreased. The curves representing the chemical shift as a function of temperature for xenon sorbed on the zeolite that contained clusters modeled as Ir-4, Ir6, and Rh-6 were all essentially the same and hardly different from that observed for the bare zeolite NaY. This comparison leads to the conclusion that xenon is less strongly adsorbed on the decarbonylated metal clusters than on the zeolite framework. Larger chemical shifts were observed for the zeolites containing the metal carbonyl clusters, with the largest being observed for the zeolite containing [Ir-4(CO)(12)] These results are explained on the basis of the cluster sizes and NaY zeolite geometry. We suggest that the contact between xenon and [Ir-4(CO)(12)] cluster is better than that between xenon and [Ir-6(CO)(16)] or xenon and [Rh-6(CO)(16)] clusters because these two larger clusters almost fill the zeolite supercages and exclude xenon, whereas [Ir-4(CO)(12)] in the supercages is small enough to allow entry of the xenon.