Superalkalis: Design, Properties and Application

Superalkalis are a special class of atomic clusters which potentially mimic the behavior of alkali metal atoms. These are the species having lower ionization energies than alkalis; which are known to possess the lowest ionization energy (IE) among all the elements in the periodic table. Owning to their lowIE, superalkalis possess strong reducing capacity. It has been reported recently that the superalkalis are capable of reducing carbon dioxide and several other stable molecules.

Although the first superalkali cluster Li3O was experimentally realized in 1979, the superalkalis were formulated for first time in 1982.The last two decades witnessed an enormous research and development on the various aspects of superalkalis. These clusters not only possess unusual structures but also some peculiar properties, which can be exploited for various applications. This leads to their applications in the design of superbases, nonlinear optically active compounds, alkalides, hydrogen storage, etc. The scope of the field is broad but the involvement of research groups in the field worldwide is relatively scarce.

The proposed book aims to provide a state-of-the-art along with the recent advances on various aspects of this particularly interesting topic. Due to lack of any reference book on this specific topic, the book will be proved to be a unique source of literature. Keeping this in mind, the proposed book is designed to span from a basic introduction to the latest development in the subject. This book will serve as a unique resource for the next generation research on the subject