Probing the Metal Composition of Ternary 12–12′‐16 Nanoclusters via Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

The reaction of [(3,5‐Me 2 –C 5 H 3 N) 2 Zn(SeSiMe 3 ) 2 ] with a solution of Cd(OAc) 2 , Se(Ph)SiMe 3 and PPr 3 at low temperature was used to prepare single crystals of ternary group 12–12′‐16 nanoclusters with the composition [Zn 1.8 Cd 8.2 Se 4 (SePh) 12 (PPr 3 ) 4 ]. A ligand exchange reaction using Na[SePh] was performed to displace the neutral PPr 3 ligands. The resulting clusters were probed using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry to determine the number of zinc and cadmium atoms in the cluster and compared to the all cadmium cluster [Cd 10 Se 4 (SePh) 12 (PPr 3 ) 4 ]. The dianionic clusters [Zn x Cd 10– x Se 4 (SePh) 14 ] 2– where x = 0, 1, 2 were assigned in the mass spectra, revealing that the clusters exhibit elemental distributions that are quite narrow in these experiments.