CLUSTER ISOLATED CHEMICAL-REACTIONS

The study of chemical reactions in clusters is a rapidly growing field that is attractive for investigating medium effects in reaction dynam ics. Cluster isolated chemical reaction (CICR) is a new direction deve loped in our laboratory, which enables quantitative studies to be made in that field. CICR experiments consist in depositing a controlled nu mber of reactants on large van der Waals clusters that play the role o f a solvent of fairly well known size, structure and temperature. This offers enormous advantages, both on the experimental side and for fur ther theoretical investigations. The present review intends to draw to gether informations that are pertinent for developing experiments and concepts towards understanding chemical reactions in clusters, through CICR-type experiments. In particular, it reviews the questions first of generating and controlling the properties of large van der Waals cl usters and secondly of attaching reactants to clusters and controlling their number and location in the cluster. Besides reviewing thoroughl y the CICR work done so far in our laboratory, the present paper also reviews part of the vast literature pertaining to reaction dynamics in large van der Waals clusters.