Development of a Centre of Excellence for the study of pure metal clusters.

超小金属颗粒，特别是过渡金属颗粒，是一些工业和环境上最重要的催化过程的核心。它们是汽车催化转化器的关键部件，用于净化废气、减少烟雾，也是大宗化学品制备过程中重要催化过程的关键部件。金属纳米颗粒也在纳米技术革命中发挥着核心作用。例如，小的铁颗粒被用来催化碳纳米管的生长，碳纳米管的特性在未来材料的开发中具有很大的希望。尽管它们的实际重要性，但是，纳米颗粒和小金属簇的结构和反应性仍然不清楚。特别是，很少有人知道原子团簇内的原子的几何排列和团簇本身的反应性之间的关系。科学家们需要新的方法和实验技术来研究这些物种，以便充分发挥它们的潜力，根据这一建议，将在沃里克大学建立一个研究金属团簇的高级研究中心，在那里已经进行的团簇工作的基础上加以发展和扩大。将开发新的仪器和技术，以了解这些重要系统的基本特性，并开辟新的研究途径。到项目结束时，金属团簇的结构以及它们与团簇反应性的关系将得到更清晰的了解，这将使我们能够最大限度地利用它们。

Ultra-small metal particles, especially those of transition metals, lie at the very heart of some of the most industrially and environmentally important catalysis processes. They are the key components in the catalytic converters of cars to clean up exhaust gases reducing smog and in important catlytic processes involved in the preparation of bulk chemicals. Metal nanoparticles are also playing a central role in the nanotechnology revolution. For example small iron particles are used to catalyse the growth of carbon nanotubes the properties of which hold great promise in the development of future materials. Despite their practical importance, however, the structures and reactivity of nanoparticles and small metal clusters remain ill-understood. In particular, little is known about the relationship between the geometrical arrangement of the atoms within a cluster and the reactivity of the cluster itself. Scientists require new methods and experimental techniques to investigate these species in order to realise their full potential.Under this proposal, a centre of excellence for the study of metal clusters would be created at the University of Warwick building upon and expanding the cluster work already in progress there. New instruments and techniques will be developed in an attempt to understand the basic properties of these important systems and new avenues of research initiated. By the end of the project a clearer picture of the structures of metal clusters and how they relate to cluster reactivity will have been revealed which will allow us to make maximum use of them.