Designing New Materials Using Atomic Clusters

Designing principles for forming stable metallic clusters whose chemistry mimics different atoms of the periodic table are discussed. It is shown that while bulk Al is a metal, the chemistry of an Al₁₃ resembles that of a halogen atom, a CAl₁₂ resembles an inert atom, while a NAl₁₂ resembles an alkali atom. The feasibility of making new materials using clusters as the building blocks is discussed. An ionic solid made out of Al₁₃ (or BAl₁₂) and Cs is shown to be metastable and marked by a large gap at the Fermi energy even though bulk Al and Cs are metals.