Mass spectrometry (MS) is a century-old discipline concerning the formation, identification, and separation of gaseous ions. Revolutionary improvements in ionization and separation methods have made MS a very well-established analytical tool for the identification, purification, and characterization of a wide range of chemicals and biological samples. MS has resulted in numerous implications in materials science such as the discovery of fullerene, superatoms, and atomically precise nanoclusters. As materials science getting more molecular, MS becomes a more valuable tool since it met the needs in this area. Particularly, MS is the best tool for the structural characterization of complex atomic clusters that can not be crystallized.

I use high-resolution electrospray ionization (ESI) MS, ion mobility MS, and tandem MS to get molecular-level insight into the small molecules that are challenging to be achieved with other conventional characterization methods. My efforts have resulted in the identification of novel mixed metal nanoclusters with single-atom precision. The effect of a single atom substitution to the core of Co6S8(PEt3)6+ cluster has been revealed through ion mobility and tandem MS. We demonstrated that changing a single atom in the core of the cluster substantially changes the optical, magnetic, and electrochemical property of the cluster which provides a direct path towards designing novel atomically precise core-tailored nanoclusters. For more detailed information please check the below paper: