Structure determination of gaseous metal and semi-metal cluster ions by ion mobility spectrometry

Gas phase ion mobility spectrometry in combination with quantum chemical calculations has proven to be extremely useful for the structure determination of cluster ions. After a short introduction into the methodology, investigations focused on clusters of different main group metals and semi-metals are reviewed. Based on the findings of different groups, it became apparent that in many cases small clusters (below 100 atoms) show a rich variation in shape as function of the number of atoms.