Chapter 14
Creating Genetic Materials of Metal
Clusters
14.1 Introduction
While the preceding chapters present the reactivity of metal clusters, elucidating the
chemistry of condensed matter, studies of cluster reactivity also serve to reveal the
microscopic aspects such as nucleation phenomena, formation of highly dispersed
media like ultrafine particles and nanoscale materials/surfaces. It has been outlined
in aforementioned chapters how the potential use of metal clusters, particularly the
reaction products in initiating cluster-assembled materials, has generated reasonable
research interest in the activity of clusters on surfaces [1–4]. Unique properties of
abundant metal clusters were found to give rise to promising potential use, such as the
catalytic properties of noble metal clusters [5, 6], the oxygen-etching resistance of
certain aluminum clusters and the energetic materials production by cluster reactions
[7–9], or the selectivity of band gap and optical properties based on specific precise
clusters [10].
However, due to the free-electron characteristics of metal clusters and thus their
corresponding reactivity, precisely controlled deposition onto surfaces proves to be
difficult. Even assuming a cluster can be successfully soft-landed without implanting,
embedding or fragmenting, in many cases the cluster on surfaces may deform thus
losing its desirable electronic and geometric structure [11, 12]. Furthermore, even
though a successful soft-landing onto a surface, clusters may still diffuse unless they
bind to defect sites, step edges, or reactive sites; and depending on the abundance,
they can agglomerate into large islands that no longer exhibit the original properties
regarding the strongly size-dependent properties of small individuals [13]. In the gas
phase, small clusters have been shown to exhibit substantially different properties
compared with bulk materials, and also differ from each other even if just a single
atom or electron is added or removed [14, 15].
Even the all-known challenges, extensive investigations have been undertaken on
studying the deposited cluster systems which display so interesting characteristics
that they have prompted the growth of an entire sub-field of cluster science [16–28].
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Z. Luo and S. N. Khanna, Metal Clusters and Their Reactivity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9704-6_14
241
Creating Genetic Materials of Metal
Clusters
14.1 Introduction
While the preceding chapters present the reactivity of metal clusters, elucidating the
chemistry of condensed matter, studies of cluster reactivity also serve to reveal the
microscopic aspects such as nucleation phenomena, formation of highly dispersed
media like ultrafine particles and nanoscale materials/surfaces. It has been outlined
in aforementioned chapters how the potential use of metal clusters, particularly the
reaction products in initiating cluster-assembled materials, has generated reasonable
research interest in the activity of clusters on surfaces [1–4]. Unique properties of
abundant metal clusters were found to give rise to promising potential use, such as the
catalytic properties of noble metal clusters [5, 6], the oxygen-etching resistance of
certain aluminum clusters and the energetic materials production by cluster reactions
[7–9], or the selectivity of band gap and optical properties based on specific precise
clusters [10].
However, due to the free-electron characteristics of metal clusters and thus their
corresponding reactivity, precisely controlled deposition onto surfaces proves to be
difficult. Even assuming a cluster can be successfully soft-landed without implanting,
embedding or fragmenting, in many cases the cluster on surfaces may deform thus
losing its desirable electronic and geometric structure [11, 12]. Furthermore, even
though a successful soft-landing onto a surface, clusters may still diffuse unless they
bind to defect sites, step edges, or reactive sites; and depending on the abundance,
they can agglomerate into large islands that no longer exhibit the original properties
regarding the strongly size-dependent properties of small individuals [13]. In the gas
phase, small clusters have been shown to exhibit substantially different properties
compared with bulk materials, and also differ from each other even if just a single
atom or electron is added or removed [14, 15].
Even the all-known challenges, extensive investigations have been undertaken on
studying the deposited cluster systems which display so interesting characteristics
that they have prompted the growth of an entire sub-field of cluster science [16–28].
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Z. Luo and S. N. Khanna, Metal Clusters and Their Reactivity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9704-6_14
241