Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2013, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (03): 486-490.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201212121

• THERMODYNAMICS, KINETICS, AND STRUCTURAL CHEMISTRY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Size Effect on the Signal Intensity Difference between Odd- and Even-Numbered Phosphorus Cluster Ions

KONG Xiang-Lei   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P. R. China
  • Received:2012-08-16 Revised:2012-12-10 Published:2013-02-25
  • Supported by:

    The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21172121, 21121002) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China.

Abstract:

Intensity difference between odd- and even-numbered cluster ions is one of the characteristics of phosphorus clusters. Generally, for the clusters with cluster ion size n>25, intensities of odd-numbered cluster ions are much higher than those of their even-numbered neighbors. In order to better understand the size effect on the phenomenon, large phosphorus clusters (n~500) were generated by laser ablation on red phosphorus in vacuum. Their intensity distributions were also analyzed. Results show that the intensity difference between odd- and even-numbered cluster ions decreases with increasing cluster size for both cations and anions. Based on the observed trends for cations and anions, it can be estimated that the observed intensity alternation of even/odd numbered clusters may vanish for cluster ions with n>1000. These results exactly reflect the function of cluster as a bridge linking atoms in the gas phase and their bulk counterpart in the bulk phase.

Key words: Phosphorus cluster, Laser ablation, Size effect, Mass spectrometry