Designing new materials using atomic clusters

Designing principles for forming stable metallic clusters whose chemistry m imics different atoms of the periodic table are discussed. It is shown that while bulk Al is a metal, the chemistry of an Al-13 resembles that of a ha logen atom, a CAl12 resembles an inert atom, while a NAl12 resembles an alk ali atom. The feasibility of making new materials using clusters as the bui lding blocks is discussed. An ionic solid made out of Al-13 (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.