The UV absorption spectrum of C60 (buckminsterfullerene): A narrow band at 3860 Å

The absorption spectrum of the special C60 cluster buckminsterfullerene has been studied in a supersonic beam by laser depletion of the cold van der Waals complexes of C60 with benzene and methylene chloride. Both complexes were found to display a single, isolated absorption band in the near ultraviolet superimposed on a structureless absorption continuum. For the methylene chloride complex this feature is centered at 3860 Å, and is roughly 50 cm−1 wide. In the benzene van der Waals cluster, the corresponding feature is located at 3863 Å, and has a similar width. This spectrum is tentatively assigned to the 0–0 band of the lowest 1T1u<--1Ag (LUMO+1<--HOMO) transition of a truncated icosahedral carbon shell structure, broadened by coupling to the underlying quasicontinuum of ground state vibrational levels

C(240)-----The most Chemically Inert Fullerene?

The reactivity of the fullerenes is primarily a function of their strain, as measured by the pyramidalization angle or curvature of the conjugated carbon atoms. The development of faceting in the structure of large icosahedral fullerenes leads to a minimum in the value of the maximum fullerene pyramidalization angle that lies in the vicinity of C-240. On this basis it is argued that C-240 will be the most chemically inert fullerene. This observation explains the production of [10,10] single-walled nanotubes because a C-240 hemisphere is required for the nucleation of such tubes

Surface reactions of metal clusters. II. Reactivity surveys with D2, N2, and CO

Reactions on the surface of a variety of transition metal clusters have been studied in the gas phase at near room temperature using a newly developed fast-flow reaction device. Initial examples of the use of this device are provided by survey studies of the reactivity of iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, and niobium clusters in contact with low concentrations of D2, N2 and CO. Dissociative chemisorption of D2 is found to occur with dramatic sensitivity to cluster size in the cases of iron, cobalt, and niobium clusters, the detailed pattern of reactivity differing markedly for each metal. The corresponding reaction is also observed with nickel clusters, but here the reactivity shows only a slow, steady increase with cluster size. Copper clusters are found to be completely unreactive to H2 chemisorption under these conditions. Molecular nitrogen is found to chemisorb readily to clusters of cobalt and niobium, with a reactivity pattern very similar to that observed with D2. Iron clusters are found to show slight reactivity with N2; only a small amount of chemisorption is observed on the most reactive clusters at high N2 concentration, but the pattern of this reactivity with cluster size is consistent with that observed in D2 chemisorption. In contrast to these highly structured reactivity patterns of D2 and N2, carbon monoxide is found to show only a slow, monotonic increase in reactivity with cluster size. It is suggested that these dramatic reactivity patterns for chemisorption on metal clusters provide stringent tests for future theories as to the nature of chemisorption on metal surfaces at a detailed, molecular level

Stability of 1-D Excitons in Carbon Nanotubes under High Laser Excitations

Through ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy with intense pump pulses and a wide continuum probe, we show that interband exciton peaks in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are extremely stable under high laser excitations. Estimates of the initial densities of excitons from the excitation conditions, combined with recent theoretical calculations of exciton Bohr radii for SWNTs, suggest that their positions do not change at all even near the Mott density. In addition, we found that the presence of lowest-subband excitons broadens all absorption peaks, including those in the second-subband range, which provides a consistent explanation for the complex spectral dependence of pump-probe signals reported for SWNTs.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Photophysics of buckminsterfullerene and other carbon cluster ions

The laser-induced fragmentation behavior of positive carbon cluster ions has been investigated by tandem time-of-flight techniques for the jet-cooled clusters up to 80 atoms in size. Two distinct photophysical regimes were found. The first applies to clusters with 34 atoms or more, all of which dissociate to produce even numbered fragments. Large even clusters fragment by the loss of the high energy species C2, odd ones lose a C atom. The second regime applies to clusters composed of 31 or less atoms, all of which fragment by the loss of C3. These two regimes are sharply separated by C + 32 which fragments to produce small cluster ions in the 10–19 atom size range. Fragmentation of the large clusters occurs on a microsecond or faster time scale only at very high levels of excitation (>12.8 eV). These photophysical results are interpreted as consequences of the large even clusters having edgeless, spheroidal cage structures while the small ones have linear chain or ring structures

An information-bearing seed for nucleating algorithmic self-assembly

Self-assembly creates natural mineral, chemical, and biological structures of great complexity. Often, the same starting materials have the potential to form an infinite variety of distinct structures; information in a seed molecule can determine which form is grown as well as where and when. These phenomena can be exploited to program the growth of complex supramolecular structures, as demonstrated by the algorithmic self-assembly of DNA tiles. However, the lack of effective seeds has limited the reliability and yield of algorithmic crystals. Here, we present a programmable DNA origami seed that can display up to 32 distinct binding sites and demonstrate the use of seeds to nucleate three types of algorithmic crystals. In the simplest case, the starting materials are a set of tiles that can form crystalline ribbons of any width; the seed directs assembly of a chosen width with >90% yield. Increased structural diversity is obtained by using tiles that copy a binary string from layer to layer; the seed specifies the initial string and triggers growth under near-optimal conditions where the bit copying error rate is 17 kb of sequence information. In sum, this work demonstrates how DNA origami seeds enable the easy, high-yield, low-error-rate growth of algorithmic crystals as a route toward programmable bottom-up fabrication

Contributions to the Nearby Stars (NStars) Project: Spectroscopy of Stars Earlier than M0 within 40 parsecs: The Northern Sample I

We have embarked on a project, under the aegis of the Nearby Stars (NStars)/ Space Interferometry Mission Preparatory Science Program to obtain spectra, spectral types, and, where feasible, basic physical parameters for the 3600 dwarf and giant stars earlier than M0 within 40 parsecs of the sun. In this paper we report on the results of this project for the first 664 stars in the northern hemisphere. These results include precise, homogeneous spectral types, basic physical parameters (including the effective temperature, surface gravity and the overall metallicity, [M/H]) and measures of the chromospheric activity of our program stars. Observed and derived data presented in this paper are also available on the project's website at http://stellar.phys.appstate.edu/

Hydrogen adsorption and cohesive energy of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Hydrogen adsorption on crystalline ropes of carbon single-walled nanotubes (SWNT) was found to exceed 8 wt.%, which is the highest capacity of any carbon material. Hydrogen is first adsorbed on the outer surfaces of the crystalline ropes. At pressures higher than about 40 bar at 80 K, however, a phase transition occurs where there is a separation of the individual SWNTs, and hydrogen is physisorbed on their exposed surfaces. The pressure of this phase transition provides a tube-tube cohesive energy for much of the material of 5 meV/C atom. This small cohesive energy is affected strongly by the quality of crystalline order in the ropes