A bronze matryoshka doll: The metal in the metal in the metal
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 11:31
in Physics & Chemistry
A doll in a doll, and then one more, enveloping them from the outside this is how Thomas Faessler explains his molecule. He packs one atom in a cage within an atom framework. With their large surfaces these structures can serve as highly efficient catalysts. Just like in the Russian wooden toy, a hull of twelve copper atoms encases a single tin atom. This hull is, in turn, enveloped by 20 further tin atoms. Professor Faessler's work group at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany) was the first to generate these spatial structures built up in three layers as isolated metal clusters in bronze alloys.