Mixed cationic clusters of nitrogen and hydrogen

TL;DR

This study investigates how adding hydrogen to nitrogen clusters affects their structure and stability, revealing similarities to noble gas clusters and identifying common magic numbers in mixed systems.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the effects of hydrogen addition on nitrogen cluster geometries and stability, highlighting interchangeability of molecular species and magic number phenomena.

Findings

Protonated nitrogen clusters behave similarly to protonated noble gas clusters.

Mixed N₂ and D₂ clusters show interchangeable species regarding magic numbers.

(N₂)ₙ(D₂)ₘD⁺ systems with n+m=17 are particularly abundant.

Abstract

The addition of small impurities, such as a single proton charge carrier, in noble gas clusters has recently been shown to have considerable effects on their geometries and stabilities. Here we report on a mass spectrometric study of cationic clusters of N$_2$ molecules and the effects that adding hydrogen, in the form of D$_2$, has on the systems. Protonated nitrogen clusters formed by the breakup of D$_2$ are shown to have similar behaviors as protonated rare gas clusters. For larger systems consisting of different mixtures of intact N$_2$ and D$_2$, the different molecular species are found to sometimes be interchangeable with regards to magic numbers. This is especially true for the (N$_2$)$_n$(D$_2$)$_m$D$^+$ systems with $n+m=17$, which is particularly abundant for all measured combinations of $n$ and $m$.