CLUSTER SIZE EFFECTS

In this paper we address some of the unique, novel and basic features of clusters, which involve the physical and chemical consequences of their large surface/volume ratio and the size dependence of the properties of large finite systems. Energetic, quantum, electronic, spectroscopic, and electrodynamic size effects in clusters were quantified by cluster size equations (CSEs), which describe the gradual "transition" from the large finite cluster to the infinite bulk system, with increasing the cluster size. Some progress was also accomplished in the description of the "transition" from cluster microsurfaces to macrosurfaces, which can be described in terms of surface CSEs. The analysis implies a nonuniversality principle for cluster size effects, with different physical properties being described in terms of distinct CSEs. The CSEs provide a quantitative answer to a central question in the area of cluster chemical physics: What is the minimal cluster size for which its properties become size invariant and do not differ in any significant way from those of the macroscopic sample of the same material? A unified (but not universal) description is advanced for the merging between the properties of microscopic large finite systems and those of a macroscopic bulk material.