摘要:
Reactions of Ag2 and Au2 with several small molecules have been studied in the gas phase, under thermalized conditions at room temperature, in a fast-flow reactor. Ag2 was observed to react only with NH3, implying bimolecular rate constants of less than 5×10−15 cm3 s−1 at 6 Torr He for reaction with O2, N2O, N2, H2, CH4, CO2, CO, and C2H4. The complex, Ag2NH3, was found to be in equilibrium with Ag2 and NH3 with an equilibrium constant of 4.6±0.3×10−15 cm3. Third law modeling of this equilibrium constant leads to a value of 58±8 kJ mol−1 for the binding energy of Ag2NH3. Au2 was not observed to react with O2, N2O, N2, and CH4, again implying bimolecular rate constants of less than 5×10−15 cm3 s−1 at 6 Torr He. Au2 reacted with CO, NH3, and C2H4 in a manner characteristic of association reactions in their low pressure limit. Limiting low-pressure, third-order, rate constants were found to be 2.6±0.9, 22±4, and 230±50×10−30 cm6 s−1, respectively. These rate constants are 3 to 20 times larger than those for corresponding Cu2 reactions. Modeling studies of these rate constants imply that the Au2 complexes are bound by 20–40 kJ mol−1 more than their Cu2 counterparts, if both the complexes of both dimers have similar molecular structure. In addition, Au2 exhibits a unique reaction amongst the coinage metal dimers in that it reacts with hydrogen via what appears to be an insertion reaction with a pressure independent rate constant of 1.4±0.3×10−14 cm3 s−1 at 297 K. Trends in the reactivity of coinage metal dimers revealed by this work and our earlier studies of Cu2 dimer reactions are discussed in terms of the role relativistic effects play in metal cluster chemistry. In particular, we remark that the anomalous chemical behavior of Au2 is consistent with other anomalies credited to relativistic effects in the physics and chemistry of gold.