search site  |  contact us  HOME PRODUCTS DOWNLOADS SALES SUPPORT NEWS Palladium Nanoclusters Captured by CrystalMaker Spectacular Visualization is Front-Page News 12 February 2001. Spectacular images of a remarkable nano-sized palladium cluster have recently been published in the International Edition of the prestigious chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie - with a breathtaking, CrystalMaker-generated image dominating the front cover! CrystalMaker user, Prof Larry F Dahl and coworkers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison were able to isolate crystals of a highly-unusual compound: whose molecular consitutuents form large (16.5 A diameter) spherical palladium carbonyl phosphane clusters. Individual clusters have three concentric ("onion-shell") arrangements of palladium atoms. Deep within the cluster is a central Pd atom, surrounded by 12 Pd atoms arranged to form an icosahedron. This first shell is surrounded by a second shell of 42 Pd atoms, also arranged in an icosahedral shape, but with 6 Pd atoms per triangular face (arranged in a 3-2-1 pattern). Shell 2 is in turn surrounded by a third shell of 60 Pd atoms (a "rhombicosidodecahedron") - a previously-unknown stereo isometer of the more familiar C60 "bucky-ball". 30 additional Pd atoms decorate the outer surface of the cluster (arranged above square-planar Pd groups in shell 3) capping square-based pyramids, with a tri-ethyl-phosphane ligand attached to each capping Pd atom. Prof Dahl and colleagues were able to plot the structure of individual clusters, using CrystalMaker's atom selection tools, which allow individual molecules to be isolated from a surrounding crystal structure. In addition, by selecting groups of atoms, within a cluster, it is possible to progressively hide/show areas of detail, including the elegant, concentric shell structure. Reference N T Tran, D R Powell and L F Dahl (2000) Nanosized Pd145(CO)x(PEt3)30 containing a capped three-shell 145-atom metal-core geometry of pseudo-icosahedral symmetry. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 39(22):4121--4125 © 2008 CrystalMaker Software Limited. All rights reserved worldwide.