Laser synthesis of transition metal clusters

Laser ablation of a variety of quite different precursors has been shown to generate gas-phase clusters, which can be immediately characterised using a mass spectrometer. Such experiments provide access to a huge range of species inaccessible by more conventional preparative means. Metal oxides, phosphides and chalcogenides, metal carbonyl clusters and even giant keplerate spheres have been shown to aggregate in the gas phase to form high-nuclearity clusters.