Growth, Structure and Morphology of Supported Metal Clusters Studied by Surface Science Techniques

This paper reviews on the basic theoretical background of the nucleation, growth and morphology of supported clusters, from thermodynamics and kinetics approaches. The application of surface science techniques to study, in situ, the formation and the structure of supported metal clusters is discussed from several examples. The combination of surface science techniques with microscopy techniques (ex situ TEM or in situ STM and AFM) is very powerful to study supported metal clusters. The influence of the substrate on the structure of metal clusters is also discussed from recent molecular dynamics calculations and experimental observations.