ABSTRACT
In the early days of transition metal carbonyl cluster chemistry, only a handfid of analytical and spectroscopic techniques were available suitable for their characteri sation. In fact, definite characterisation o f the first metal-metal bond in a molecular compound took several years to complete. Fortunately, the development of new techniques combined with massive improvements in computing power has now made the characterisation o f new cluster compounds routine. Chemists today can choose from a wide range of techniques that help them study novel compounds and materials. Four techniques are o f particular importance to the study o f transition metal carbonyl clusters, these being infrared spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, N M R spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Other techniques are generally only em ployed where these methods fail to provide all o f the information required to characterise the cluster. Peculiarities o f each technique in their application to cluster chemistry is described and a brief summary o f some o f the less frequently used characterisation methods is given.
