Oxidation of small boron cluster ions (B+1–13) by oxygen

Abstract

Absolute cross sections for all ionic products formed in reactions of B⁺_1–13 with oxygen have been measured under single collision conditions, at collision energies from 0.25 to 10 eV. Three main reaction mechanisms appear to be important: oxidative fragmentation, collision induced dissociation, and boron atom abstraction. The dominant oxidation process are exoergic for all cluster sizes, but appear to have bottlenecks or activation barriers for the larger cluster ions. Clusters smaller than B⁺₆ have similar chemistry, then there is a sharp transition in chemistry for clusters larger than B⁺₆ . Correlations are explored between cluster reactivity and cluster stability, and the oxidation chemistry is compared to the similar results found for aluminum cluster ion oxidation.