Encapsulation behavior, as well as the presence of internal catalytically-active sites, has been spurring the applications of a 3 nm hollow spherical metal oxide cluster {Mo<sub>132</sub>} as an encapsulation host and a nano-reactor. Due to its well-defined and tunable cluster structures, and nano-scaled internal void space comparable to the volumes of small molecules, this cluster provides a good model to study the dynamics of materials under Nano-confinement. The dynamics of internal bulky ligands inside {Mo<sub>132</sub>} clusters has been explored by quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering at different energy and time scales for the first time. Different from the soft nature of regular alkyl tails, the ligands under nano-confinement are found to be quite rigid, as suggested from their slow dynamics and limited diffusive motions and vibrations. The stiffness of these ligands modifies the encapsulation properties by displaying hard selection against the sizes of guest molecules, e.g. n-hexane against cyclo-hexane. This work is instructive for the design of metal oxide clusters for encapsulation and catalysis purposes by revealing the importance of internal ligands. It also initiates the research on the materials properties under nano-confinement. (Yin, P. et al. Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22 (40), 14131)

Nano-Confinement inside molecular metal oxide clusters: Dynamics and modified encapsulation behavior

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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