Structures and Superhalogen Properties of PtCl (2 ≤ n ≤ 10) Clusters.

Laser ablation mass spectrometry was applied to study the cluster anions of PtCl . Among them, PtCl and PtCl were observed with remarkable intensities in the mass spectrum. Collision-activated dissociation experiments were also performed for the two anions. A systematic study of the structures and electron affinities (EAs) of PtCl (2 ≤ n ≤ 10) clusters was performed on the level of B3LYP/Lanl2dz/6-311++G(2d, p). For both systems, their EAs do not increase monotonically with the increase of Cl atoms. All the clusters of PtCl (3 ≤ n ≤ 10) and PtCl (3 ≤ n ≤ 10) show EAs larger than that of the Cl atom. The highest EAs for the series of PtCl and PtCl are 6.55 and 5.82 eV, corresponding to those of PtCl and PtCl, respectively. The results indicate that these clusters might be applied as effective units in constructing new "hypersalts".