Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
EID
Electron-induced dissociation
ESI
Electrospray ionisation
eV
Electron volt
FAB
Fast atom bombardment
FT
Fourier transform
ICP
Inductively coupled plasma
ICR
Ion cyclotron resonance
IMS
Ion mobility spectrometry
IR
Infrared
K
Kelvin
MALDI
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation
MPC
Monolayer-protected cluster
MS
Mass spectrometry
MS
n
Tandem mass spectrometry
NC
Nanocluster
nm
Nanometre
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
PD
Photodissociation
PES
Photoelectron spectroscopy
RRKM
Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus
SAM
Self-assembled monolayer
SEC
Size exclusion chromatography
SIMS
Secondary ion mass spectrometry
SORI
Sustained off-resonance irradiation
THF
Tetrahydrofuran
TIED
Trapped ion electron diffraction
TOF
Time of flight
TS
Transition state
UV-Vis
Ultraviolet visible
1
Introduction
1.1 Why Are Clusters Interesting?
As Castleman and Jena have previously noted [
1
], clusters are interesting since they
(1) 'bridge phases as well as disciplines', including the studies of (a) the environ-
ment, materials science and biology [
2
] and (b) physics and chemistry [
3
] and
(2) 'have come to symbolize a new embryonic form of matter that is intermediate
between atoms and their bulk counterpart' [
1
]. For some time the motivation to
study clusters was to model bulk behaviour by assuming that their properties vary
smoothly as some power law until they reach the bulk limit. It has now become well
appreciated that for certain cluster size regimes, the properties of materials can
change in a highly non-monotonic fashion [
3
]. Thus the new motivation has
