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Prediction of stable clusters based on the jellium model is limited because of the usual assumption of their spherical symmetry. Here the authors propose a symmetry adapted orbital model by quantum chemistry calculations for the prediction of stable clusters with various shapes that obey a certain periodicity.

No substances with greater degrees of degeneracy than spherical atoms are known, due to geometrical limitations. In this work the authors combine density functional theory and tight-binding models to predict metal clusters with higher-fold degeneracies than spherical atoms, which are ascribed to dynamical symmetry.

The structures of inorganic clusters are commonly characterized by mass spectrometry (MS), but neutral sulfur clusters heavily fragment under MS conditions, preventing their exact mass determination. Here, the authors successfully perform MS on labile cyclic sulfur clusters by stabilizing them within ionic supramolecular capsules.