Excited-State and Reactive Clusters: Synthesis, Structure, Reactivities, and Properties

Abstract

This is a special issue on ‘‘Excited-State and Reactive Clusters: Synthesis, Structure, Reactivities, and Properties.’’ It contains two reviews and 13 original papers. The subject matters range from experimental to theoretical studies of excited-state or reactive clusters as they relate to, or are involved in, interesting chemical (such as catalysis) and physical properties (e.g., luminescence). The materials involved range from zero-dimensional (0-D) quantum dots to one-dimensional (1-D) nanowires or nanotubes to two-dimensional (2-D) hydrogen bonded systems to three-dimensional (3-D) polyhedral structures. New synthetic methods, novel structures, and unusual chemical bonding of clusters, especially those related to excited or reactive clusters, are also reported. The subject matters are highlighted below: In the invited review entitled ‘‘Excited State Relaxation and Stabilization of Hydrogen-Terminated Silicon Quantum Dots,’’ Wu, Wang, Li, and Zhang provide a comprehensive review of recent advances in the theoretical investigation of the excited state properties of silicon quantum dots (QDs). The theoretical calculations revealed that the size-dependent excited-state relaxation due to surface passivation of silicon QDs by hydrogen can critically impact physical properties such as photoluminescence and hence their ultimate technological applications. The invited review entitled ‘‘Excited Semiconductor Clusters: Magic Source,’’ by Yang, Wang, and Zhang deals with the preparation and properties of CdS-like clusters as well as their applications. The formation of nanostructures, including 1-D solid and tubular fibers, 2-D dendritic morphology, and 3-D crystals are reviewed and their photoluminescence discussed. A specific example is provided in a related