β Scribed by Juan Diwu; Justin J. Good; Victoria H. DiStefano; Thomas E. Albrecht-Schmitt
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Six hexanuclear clusters of 4f and 5f elements were synthesized by roomβtemperature slow concentration experiments. Cerium(IV), thorium(IV), and plutonium(IV) each form two different hexanuclear clusters, among which the cerium and plutonium clusters are isotypic, whereas the thorium clusters show more diversity. The change in ionic radii of approximately 0.08 Γ between these different metal ions tunes the cavity size so that NH~4~^+^ (1.48 Γ ) has the right dimensions to assemble the cerium and plutonium clusters, whereas Cs^+^ (1.69 Γ ) is necessary to assemble the thorium clusters. If these cations are not used in the reactions, only amorphous material is obtained.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
CdS-mercaptoacetic (CdS/M) clusters were synthesized by using mercaptoacetic acid as the stabilizing agent in the aqueous solution. From the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image and the electron diffraction (ED) pattern, a two-dimensional nearly ordered CdS/M cluster array is observed and th