Reactivity of Gold Clusters in the Regime of Structural Fluxionality

Abstract

This work present results of a systematic investigation of adsorption and dissociation of H2 on the neutral, positively, and negatively charged gold clusters Aunq (n = 2–11; q = 0, ±1) using the global reaction route mapping (GRRM) technique combined with the anharmonic downward distortion following (ADDF) and the artificial force-induced reaction (AFIR) methods. An exhaustive search for H2 dissociation pathways is performed not only on the most stable cluster structures but also on the large number of low-energy isomers, allowing structural transformations between them. The present strategy can automatically identify the structure-dependent lowest transition states (TS) for H2 dissociation with a systematic procedure in the regime of the structural fluxionality of gold clusters at finite temperature. Temperature effects, cluster isomerization, and influence of the charge state of gold clusters on H2 adsorption and dissociation are studied. It is demonstrated that the most stable structures of the gold cl...