Modern cluster design based on experiment and theory

For decades, chemists have explored cluster compounds according to theoretical models that have proved too simplistic to accurately predict cluster properties, stabilities and functions. By incorporating molecular symmetry into existing cluster models, we can better study real polyatomic molecules and have new guidelines for their design. This symmetry-adapted cluster model allows us to discover substances that shatter the conventional notion of clusters. Theoretical predictors will point to the viability of new clusters, whose syntheses can be realized with parallel advances in experimental methods. This Perspective describes these modern experimental and theoretical strategies for cluster design and how they may give rise to new fields in cluster chemistry. Theoretical models of clusters that account for molecular symmetry offer guidelines for their design. This Perspective describes the models and how we can synthesize the clusters thus designed.