REACTION PROCESSES INVOLVING GAS-PHASE CLUSTERS

Gas-phase clusters exhibit specific reactivities which mainly arise from their unique geometric and electronic structures, and collective vibrations due to a limited number of the constituent atoms and molecules. In order to elucidate the specificities of the reaction processes involving the clusters, we describe several examples including our studies on collisional dissociation of size-selected sodium-cluster ions with rare-gas atoms, and impact of size-selected aluminum-cluster anions and [Formula: see text] with a silicon surface. In particular, the essential features of the cluster-anion-surface collision are elucidated. A dynamic solvent effect on the dissociation of [Formula: see text] is observed in the [Formula: see text] system.