With support from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program and the Chemistry Instrumentation Program, Professor Smalley is continuing his investigations of the properties, photochemistry, and surface chemistry of small metallic cluster ions. His studies of carbon clusters are directly relevant to the understanding of carbon condensation and survival and soot formation under conditions ranging from flames to the interstellar medium. Studies of surface reactions on small metal clusters should stimulate (and provide a rigorous testing ground for) the development of first-principles theoretical approaches to the molecular level details of surface phenomena. The research on mass-selected cluster ions will include (1) optical spectroscopy of cold clusters using tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry, (2) ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy of negative clusters, and (3) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance studies of the surface chemistry and photophysics of cluster ions trapped in a magnetic field.
