Clusters: A bridge across the disciplines of physics and chemistry

摘要

The properties of elements from atoms to bulk can be divided into two regimes: (ⅰ) a scalable regime where properties vary smoothly as some power law until they reach the bulk limit and (ⅱ) a nonscalable regime where the variation is highly nonmonotonic. In this latter region, characterized by clusters, unusual things can and often do arise because of quantum confinement and boundary effects. Clusters of nonmagnetic elements become magnetic, semiconducting materials exhibit metallic properties, metallic systems become semiconducting, the color of particles changes with size, noble metals become reactive, and brittle materials become malleable. These properties arise because of the unusual structure of the clusters and because the electrons belong to molecular orbitals and exhibit an energy gap, referred to as the highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO-LUMO) gap.