Research opportunities on clusters and cluster-assembled materials—A Department of Energy, Council on Materials Science Panel Report

Author:

Andres R. P.,Averback R. S.,Brown W. L.,Brus L. E.,Goddard W. A.,Kaldor A.,Louie S. G.,Moscovits M.,Peercy P. S.,Riley S. J.,Siegel R. W.,Spaepen F.,Wang Y.

Abstract

The Panel was charged with assessing the present scientific understanding of the size-dependent physical and chemical properties of clusters, the methods of synthesis of macroscopic amounts of size-selected clusters with desired properties, and most importantly, the possibility of their controlled assembly into new materials with novel properties. The Panel was composed of both academic and industrial scientists from the physics, chemistry, and materials science communities, and met in January 1988.In materials (insulators, semiconductors, and metals) with strong chemical bonding, there is extensive spatial delocalization of valence electrons, and therefore the bulk physical properties which depend upon these electrons develop only gradually with cluster size. Recent research using supersonic-jet, gas-aggregation, colloidal, and chemical-synthetic methods indeed clearly establishes that intermediate size clusters have novel and hybrid properties, between the molecular and bulk solid-state limits. A scientific understanding of these transitions in properties has only been partially achieved, and the Panel believes that this interdisciplinary area of science is at the very heart of the basic nature of materials. In Sec. V (Future Challenges and Opportunities), a series of basic questions for future research are detailed. Each question has an obvious impact on our potential ability to create new materials.Present methods for the synthesis of useful amounts of size-selected clusters, with surface chemical properties purposefully controlled and/or modified, are almost nonexistent, and these fundamentally limit our ability to explore the assembly of clusters into potentially novel materials. While elegant spectroscopic and chemisorption studies of size-selected clusters have been carried out using molecular-beam technologies, there are no demonstrated methods for recovery and accumulation of such samples. Within the past year, the first reports of the chemical synthesis of clusters with surfaces chemically modified have been reported for limited classes of materials. Apparatus for the accumulation and consolidation of nanophase materials have been developed, and the first promising studies of their physical properties are appearing. In both the chemical and nanophase synthesis areas, clusters with a distribution of sizes and shapes are being studied. Progress on macroscopic synthetic methods for size-selected clusters of controlled surface properties is the most important immediate goal recognized by the Panel. Simultaneous improvement in physical characterization will be necessary to guide synthesis research.Assuming such progress will occur, the Panel suggests that self-assembly of clusters into new elemental polymorphs and new types of nanoscale heterogeneous materials offers an area of intriguing technological promise. The electrical and optical properties of such heterogeneous materials could be tailored in very specific ways. Such ideas are quite speculative at this time; their implementation critically depends upon controlled modification of cluster surfaces, and upon development of characterization and theoretical tools to guide experiments.The Panel concluded that a number of genuinely novel ideas had been enunciated, and that in its opinion some would surely lead to exciting new science and important new materials.

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Subject

Mechanical Engineering,Mechanics of Materials,Condensed Matter Physics,General Materials Science

Cited by 597 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Introduction;Carbon-Based Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion and Storage;2022

2. Structural and electronic properties of neutral and anionic magnesium clusters doped with two barium atoms;Journal of Molecular Liquids;2021-12

3. Synthesis and Applications of Functional Nanomaterials;Journal of Physics: Conference Series;2021-11-01

4. Can an InChI for Nano Address the Need for a Simplified Representation of Complex Nanomaterials across Experimental and Nanoinformatics Studies?;Nanomaterials;2020-12-11

5. Cluster-Insulator Composites;CRC HANDBOOK of LASER SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY;2020-09-23

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3