Abstract
Atomically precise Au and Ag clusters protected by organic ligands can be viewed as chemically modified superatoms. These chemically modified Au/Ag superatoms have gained interests as promising building units of functional materials as well as ideal platforms to study the size-dependent evolution of structures and physicochemical properties. Mass spectrometry not only allows us to determine the chemical compositions of the synthesized superatoms but also gives us molecular-level insights into the mechanism of complex processes in solution. A variety of the gas-phase methods including ion-mobility–mass spectrometry, collision- or surface-induced dissociation mass spectrometry, photoelectron spectroscopy, and photodissociation mass spectrometry have been applied to the chemically modified Au/Ag superatom ions isolated in the gas phase. These studies have provided novel and complementary information on their intrinsic geometric and electronic structures that cannot be obtained by conventional characterization methods. This chapter surveys the recent progress in the gas-phase studies on chemically synthesized Au/Ag superatoms.