Density-functional theory study of the geometries, stabilities, and electronic properties of Au n Rb (n = 1–10) clusters: comparison with pure gold clusters

Abstract

The density functional method with the relativistic effective core potential has been employed to investigate systematically the geometric structures, relative stabilities, growth-pattern behavior, and electronic properties of small bimetallic Au n Rb (n = 1–10) and pure gold Au n (n ≤ 11) clusters. For the geometric structures of the Au n Rb (n = 1–10) clusters, the dominant growth pattern is for a Rb-substituted Au n +1 cluster or one Au atom capped on a Au n –1Rb cluster, and the turnover point from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional structure occurs at n = 4. Moreover, the stability of the ground-state structures of these clusters has been examined via an analysis of the average atomic binding energies, fragmentation energies, and the second-order difference of energies as a function of cluster size. The results exhibit a pronounced even–odd alternation phenomenon. The same pronounced even–odd alternations are found for the HOMO–LUMO gap, VIPs, VEAs, and the chemical hardness. In addition, about one electron charge transfers from the Au n host to the Rb atom in each corresponding Au n Rb cluster.