Cluster fundamentals
Stefanie Dehnen discusses the exotic structures of inorganic chemistry’s middle ground
Clusters occupy the middle ground between molecules and bulk solids. ‘It’s inorganic chemistry in a very fundamental sense,’ explains Stefanie Dehnen. Her research group, at the University of Marburg in Germany, investigates synthetic routes for clusters composed of different types of elements. ‘Clusters can be up to several hundred atoms but they are still atom precise. And this is why they have properties that can be reproducibly used for chemical reactions or optical properties.’