Gas Phase Cluster Synthesis

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This starter grant award of the Chemistry Division to the University of California at Berkeley supports the research of Professor Jeffrey R. Long. The theme of the research is gas phase synthesis of clusters. The goal is bulk synthesis of ligand-stabilized analogues of binary metal-anion clusters. In a specially designed gas phase cluster reactor, clusters are generated on a large scale via resistive heating of an appropriate binary solid. The clusters then react in the gas phase with a volatile ligand of choice, and the stabilized product solidifies on the liquid nitrogen cooled walls of the reactor. Successful demonstration of such a technique potentially enables access to a domain of cluster chemistry limited only by the number of binary combinations of metallic and nonmetallic elements. This research provides a general method for bulk synthesis of gas phase clusters and thus enables access to unexplored realms of cluster chemistry. The method may yield products of relevance to long-sought clusters of biological importance.