Chemical characterization was performed for an alkali-like superatom consisting of a Ta-encapsulating Si16 cage, Ta@Si16, deposited on a graphite substrate using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to element-specifically clarify the local electronic structure of the cage atoms. The XPS spectra derived from Ta 4f and Si 2p core levels have been well modeled with a single chemical component, revealing the formation of a symmetric Si cage around the Ta atom in the deposited nanoclusters. On chemical treatments by heating or oxygen exposure, it is found that the deposited Ta@Si16 is thermally stable up to 700 K and is also exceptionally less reactive toward oxygen compared to other Ta-Si nanoclusters, although some heat degradation and oxidation accompany the treatments. These results show the promising possibility of applying Ta@Si16 as a building block to fabricate cluster-assembled materials consisting of naked nanoclusters.

Nanoclusters, aggregates of several to hundreds of atoms, have been one of the central issues of nanomaterials sciences owing to their unique structures and properties, which could be found neither in nanoparticles with several nanometer diameters nor in organometallic complexes. Along with the chemical nature of each element, properties of nanoclusters change dramatically with size parameters, making nanoclusters strong potential candidates for future tailor-made materials; these nanoclusters are expected to have attractive properties such as redox activity, catalysis, and magnetism. Alloying of nanoclusters additionally gives designer functionality by fine control of their electronic structures in addition to size parameters. Among binary nanoclusters, binary cage superatoms (BCSs) composed of transition metal (M) encapsulating silicon cages, M@Si, have unique cage structures of 16 silicon atoms, which have not been found in elemental silicon nanoclusters, organosilicon compounds, and silicon based clathrates. The unique composition of these BCSs originates from the simultaneous satisfaction of geometric and electronic shell-closings in terms of cage geometry and valence electron filling, where a total of 68 valence electrons occupy the superatomic orbitals of (1S)(1P)(1D)(1F)(2S)(1G)(2P)(2D) for M = group 4 elements in neutral ground state. The most important issue for M@Si BCSs is fine-tuning of their characters by replacement of the central metal atoms, M, based on one-by-one adjustment of valence electron counts in the same structure framework of Si cage; the replacement of M yields a series of M@Si BCSs, based on their superatomic characteristics. So far, despite these unique features probed in the gas-phase molecular beam and predicted by quantum chemical calculations, M@Si have not yet been isolated. In this Account, we have focused on recent advances in synthesis and characterizations of M@Si BCSs (M = Ti and Ta). A series of M@Si BCSs (M = groups 3 to 5) was found in gas-phase molecular beam experiments by photoelectron spectroscopy and mass spectrometry: formation of halogen-, rare-gas-, and alkali-like superatoms was identified through one-by-one tuning of number of total valence electrons. Toward future functional materials in the solid state, we have developed an intensive, size-selected nanocluster source based on high-power impulse magnetron sputtering coupled with a mass spectrometer and a soft-landing apparatus. With scanning probe microscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy, the structure of surface-immobilized BCSs has been elucidated; BCSs can be dispersed in an isolated form using C fullerene decoration of the substrate. The intensive nanocluster source also enables the synthesis of BCSs in the 100-mg scale by coupling with a direct liquid-embedded trapping method into organic dispersants, enabling their structure characterization as a highly symmetric "metal-encapsulating tetrahedral silicon-cage" (METS) structure with Frank-Kasper geometry.

Nanoclusters (NCs) of several to hundreds of atoms in size are prospective functional units for future nanomaterials originating in their unique, size-specific properties. To explore the field of NC-based materials science, the development of large-scale, size-exclusive synthesis methods is in high demand, as one can see from the successful evolution of fullerene science. We have developed a large-scale synthesis method for main group-based NC compounds by scaling up the clean dry-process with a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering. The 100 mg scale synthesis of binary NCs of M@Si16 (M = Ti and Ta) stabilized by poly­(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether enables us to characterize their structures by an array of methods, for example, mass spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance. Spectroscopic evidence indicates that the M@Si16 NCs are the metal-encapsulating tetrahedral silicon-cage structure satisfying the 68 electrons, closed-electronic-shell superatom.

Adsorbed structures of naphthalene on Cu(111) have been studied using low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (LT-STM) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED). Starting from single molecules, three kinds of long-range ordered superstructures, ( 5 3 × 5 3)R30°, (2 3 × 3)rect-1C 10 H 8 , and ( -4 1 1 -4 ) are observed depending on the molecular concentrations and the substrate temperatures during molecular adsorption.One of the self-assembled ordered phases with a (5 3 × 5 3) R30°periodicity is chiral in adsorptioninduced arrangement though a single naphthalene molecule itself has no inherent chirality. In STM images, isolated single molecules appear as depressions whereas the molecules are seen as protrusions in self-assembled layers. Coverage dependent two-photon photoemission (2PPE) spectra show that the adsorption-induced occupied states is formed at around Cu 3d bands, and this results in the enhanced tunneling of occupied state images in assembled layers.

The electronic states of three different sizes of compositionally precise thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters, Au 25 (SR) 18 , Au 38 (SR) 24 , and Au 144 (SR) 60 (R = C 12 H 25 ), have been evaluated by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The Au 4f corelevels of the nanoclusters are well reproduced by two spectral components derived from centered core-Au and positively charged shell-Au atoms, the numbers of which are determined based on the atomic structures of the nanoclusters. The spin−orbit splitting of Au 5d 5/2 and 5d 3/2 in the valence band becomes narrower than that for bulk Au, depending on the cluster size, which is quantitatively characterized by a reduction in the average coordination number of Au. The Au 5d valence-band spectra also show that the charge reorganization of 5d electrons induced by interaction with thiol molecules is more significant for the 5d 5/2 than the 5d 3/2 orbital.