News

Clusters of Aluminum Atoms Found to Have Properties of Other Elements

research team has discovered clusters of aluminum atoms that have chemical properties similar to single atoms of metallic and nonmetallic elements when they react with iodine. The discovery opens the door to using 'superatom chemistry' based on a new periodic table of cluster elements to create unique compounds with distinctive properties never seen before. The results of the research, headed jointly by Shiv N. Khanna, professor of physics at Virginia Commonwealth University and A. Welford Castleman Jr., the Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and Physics and the Eberly Family Distinguished Chair in Science at Penn State University, will be reported in the January 2005 issue of the journal Science.