Species of aluminum clusters can form in different environments and the structures are dependent on temperature, pH regime, and other elements present. These clusters can serve as precursors for thin film electronic applications and provide an opportunity for solution processing and tuning of the resulting films’ electronic properties. Figure 1 shows the purple and grey spheres that symbolize the arrangement of seven aluminum and six indium atoms present in the Al7In6 cluster. The brown linking lines and white tips represent the hydroxide and water bridges respectively. These are the “hydroxo” and "aquo" of the hydroxo-aquo cluster. Using a 7:6 ratio of aluminum to indium, we believe to have formed a more sustainable and efficient way of synthesizing the Al7In6 cluster. Aluminum clusters can be used to understand aqueous aluminum chemistry in more detail. Figure 2 shows 27Al NMR data with known peak locations of different aluminum cluster formations. The formation of the hydroxo-aquo Al7In6 cluster gives insight on the classification and identification of the 5 ppm peak in 27Al NMR. 115In NMR was also performed to improve the confidence level of our cluster characterization. In the future, Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) will be performed to further strengthen the claim that the 27Al NMR 5 ppm shift corresponds to an Al7 core.

Speciation of mixed metal hydroxo-aquo aluminum clusters

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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