This book discusses current techniques and instrumentation for cluster chemistry. It addresses both the experimental and theoretical aspects of gas-phase metal cluster reactivities, especially those pertaining to pollution removal, energetic reactions and corrosion and anticorrosion. These metal cluster systems have attracted enormous interest as they display a completely new class of physical, chemical, electronic, magnetic and catalytic properties. As these properties change with size and composition, it can thus be understood how their nature evolves from atoms to bulk solids. The book offers readers a basic understanding of the structural chemistry and reactivity of metal clusters in both gas-phase and wet chemistry. Further, the lessons they learn here regarding metal cluster chemistry will prepare researchers for the study of condensed phase dynamics that pertain to wet chemical synthesis, soft-landing deposition and cluster assembly.

The book brings together, for the first time, all aspects of reactions of metallic species in the gas phase and gives an up-to-date overview of the field. Reactions covered include those of atomic, other free radical and transient neutral species, as well as ions. Experimental and theoretical work is reviewed and the efforts to establish a closer link between these approaches are discussed. The field is mainly approached from a fundamental point-of-view, but the applied problems which have helped stimulate the interest are pointed out and form the major subject of the final chapters. These emphasize the competition between purely gas-phase and gas-surface reactions.

The field of gas phase inorganic ion chemistry is relatively new; the early studies date back approximately twenty years, but there has been intense interest and development in the field in the last ten years. As with much of modern chemistry, the growth in gas phase inorganic ion chemistry can be traced to the development of instrumentation and new experimental methods. Studies in this area require sophisticated instruments and sample introduc tion/ ionization methods, and often these processes are complicated by the need for state-selecting (or collisionally stabilizing) the reactive species in order to assign the chemistry unequivocally. At the present level of experimental development, a wide range of experiments on diverse ionic systems are possible and many detailed aspects of the chemistry can be studied. Gas Phase Inorganic Chemistry focuses on the reactions of metal ions and metal clusters, and on the study of these species using the available modern spectroscopic methods. Three of the twelve chapters cover the chemistry of ionic monometal transition metal ions and the chemistry of these species with small diatomics and model organics. Two of the chapters focus on the studies of the chemical and physical properties of (primarily) transition metal clusters, and these chapters review experimental methods and capabilities. Two chapters also deal with the chemistry of transition metal carbonyl clusters, and these chapters address issues important to cluster growth and activation as well as the characterization of such species.

The cluster which is an ensemble of two thousands of atoms or molecules, has emerged as a completely new class of materials at the frontier of materials science. The frontier of cluster science extends so rapidly that the map of the science is renewed day by day. In order to provide basic knowledge and recent information on this growing field, 14 world-renowned scientists who are actively involved experimentally and theoretically in cluster science have written this book, which is concise, comprehensive, suitable for students at both the undergraduate and the graduate level, as well as people who work outside cluster science. Contents: Survey of Structure, Energetics and Dynamics of Clusters (R S Berry & R D Levine); Molecular and Ionic Cluster Spectroscopy (J M Lisy); Physical and Chemical Properties of Metal Clusters in the Gas Phase and on Solid Surfaces (A Terasaki); Femtosecond Spectroscopy on Metal Clusters (a Vajda et al.); Core Level Excitation of Clusters (E Rhl); Laboratory Experiments on Single Levitated Aerosol Particles (T Leisner); Cluster Formation from Liquid Phase (F Mafun(r)). Readership: Researchers in atomic physics, molecular physics and physical chemistry."