| Large weakly bonded clusters display properties between the gas and condensed phases, thereby providing opportunities to gain insight into properties of the condensed phase at the molecular level.;By using a fast flow reaction apparatus with some key modifications, large hydrate cluster ions ;The success of this work essentially opens a new branch of cluster research field by demonstrating that large weakly bonded clusters can be made and studied under well-defined thermal conditions. The weakly bonded clusters are found to display some unusual interesting properties at thermal energy. For example, the formation of magic numbers observed in the cluster distributions is attributed to the thermodynamic stability of the cluster structures, rather than a kinetic effect, thus resolving a long standing controversy.;In addition to the large hydrated cluster ions studied, the kinetics and mechanisms of the reactions of some small heterogenous clusters, Na;Possible applications of the present studies in other research areas such as atmospheric chemistry, clathrate hydrates in solid state, reaction dynamics of some biologic systems, and aqueous solution chemistry are discussed. |
