Reactivity of Cobalt-Fullerene Complexes towards Deuterium

The adsorption of molecular deuterium (D₂) onto charged cobalt-fullerene-complexes Co_nC₆₀⁺ (n=1–8) is measured experimentally in a few-collision reaction cell. The reactivity is strongly size-dependent, hinting at clustering of the transition metal atoms on the fullerenes. Formation and desorption rate constants are obtained from the pressure-dependent deuterogenation curves. DFT calculations indeed find that this transition metal clustering is energetically more favorable than decorating the fullerene. For n=1, D₂ is predicted to bind molecularly and for n=2 dissociative and molecular configurations are quasi-isoenergetic. For n=3–8, dissociation of D₂ is thermodynamically preferred. However, reaching the ground state configuration with dissociated deuterium on the timescale of the experiment may be hindered by dissociation barriers.