Molybdenum doped bismuth oxide clusters and their reactivity towards ethene: comparison with pure bismuth oxide clusters

Mixed bismuth–molybdenum oxide clusters containing one or two molybdenum atoms have been produced in a molecular beam. Their compositions can be formulated in terms of (Bi2O3)mBiOMoO3+, (Bi2O3)mBiO(MoO3)2+ (m⩾2), (Bi2O3)mOnMoO3+, and (Bi2O3)mOn(MoO3)2+ (m⩾3, n=0,1). Reactivities of these molybdenum-doped and pure bismuth oxide cluster cations towards ethene have been investigated and rate constants have been calculated, e.g., for Bi6O9+ and Bi6O9MoO3+. Remarkably, the reactivity of the highly active bismuth oxide cluster Bi6O9+ is only slightly varied by addition of one {MoO3} unit, providing evidence for the independence of the different metal oxide centres in the cluster.