Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.101, No.42, 7695-7698, 1997
Titanium-carbon clusters: New evidence for high stability of neutral Met-Cars
The objective of the present study is to establish whether the neutral titanium metallocarbohedrene cluster (Met-Car), Ti8C12, has a high stability as does its cation counterpart. In this investigation, neutral titanium-carbon clusters were studied by mass spectrometry following near-threshold photoionization. We found that copious quantities of the neutral Met-Cars are produced under certain conditions where the power of the vaporization laser for cluster formation is sufficiently high. Under these conditions, a prominent peak corresponding to Ti8C12 is detected even at very low fluences of the ionization laser employed to acquire single-photon ionization conditions. The present study provides clear evidence to lay to rest the question raised by Brock and Duncan in their recent paper (J. Phys. Chem. 1996, 100, 5654), whether the neutral Met-Cars are stable or not.