March 15, 2022
Keio University
A research group led by Professor Atsushi Nakajima, Project Associate Professor Masahiro Shibuta (at the time of the research; currently Associate Professor at Osaka Metropolitan University), and Assistant Professor Tomoya Inoue of the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology has successfully created aluminum superatom-modified substrates by depositing aluminum nanocluster superatoms, generated in the gas phase, onto organic substrates modified with organic molecules. They revealed that aluminum 13-mer superatoms are immobilized on the substrate in an anionic state.
The development of functional substrates using novel nanostructures is extremely important for overcoming energy and environmental problems by further improving the efficiency of chemical and energy conversion processes. Among nanoclusters, which are aggregates of several to several tens of atoms, it was known that there are nanostructures called nanocluster superatoms, which take on electronic states similar to those of atoms. However, in addition to the difficulty of producing nanocluster superatoms with a uniform number of atoms and composition, there was the challenge that they could not be stabilized on substrate surfaces because they could be deformed or their charge state could change due to the surface properties and structural disorder.
This research group mass-synthesized pristine aluminum 13-mer superatoms (Al 13 - ) using a gas-phase method and orderly immobilized them on the substrate by using organic substrates modified with organic molecules such as C 60 as a support. Although nanostructures composed of aggregated aluminum atoms are chemical species that are extremely susceptible to oxidation, the group found that by aggregating 13 atoms to form an ordered film, its oxidative reactivity could be reduced by about two orders of magnitude. These results are considered to be of high value for the development of functional nanostructured substrates using aluminum superatoms. Furthermore, these findings are expected to lead to the creation of functional nanostructures that will realize next-generation chemical and energy conversion.
The results of this research were published in the Springer Nature academic journal "Nature Communications" on March 14, 2022 (UK time).
For the full press release, please see below.