Mass-selective vibrational spectroscopy of vanadium oxide cluster ions

A corner stone in the study of the size-dependent properties of cluster ions in the gas phase is their structural characterization. Over the last 10 years, significant progress has been made in this research field because of important advances in the gas phase vibrational spectroscopy of mass-selected ions. Using a combination of modern experimental and quantum chemical approaches, it is now in most cases possible to uniquely identify the geometric structure of cluster ions, based on the comparison of the experimental and simulated infrared spectra. In this article, we highlight the progress made in this research area by reviewing recent infrared photodissociation experiments on small and medium sized vanadium oxide ions. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.