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New experiments in a fast-flow reactor have uncovered a strong correlation between the reactivity of free iron clusters and cluster ionization thresholds: Clusters with low thresholds efficiently add molecular hydrogen, and the relative rates of this reaction closely follow variations in cluster-electron binding energy. This correspondence can be understood in terms of a requirement for metal-to-hydrogen charge transfer in the activation of the H₂ bond.
Whetten et al. (Mon,) studied this question.