Cobalt-based materials have a wide range of applications from information storage to electromagnetic absorbers in aerospace manufacturing, but the corrosion of cobalt nanosurfaces is poorly explored. Here, the authors combine mass spectrometry and DFT to study gas-phase reactions of Con±/0 (n = 1–30) with water and oxygen and find that only anionic cobalt clusters give rise to water dissociation, whereas the cationic and neutral ones are limited to water adsorption.
- Lijun Geng
- Pengju Wang
- Zhixun Luo