An ab initio study of protonation of B12H122−. Structure and non-rigidity of B12H13− and formation of B12H11− and B24H233−

Applications of Boron Cluster Supramolecular Frameworks as Metal-Free Chemodynamic Therapy Agents for Melanoma

Chemodynamic therapy (CDT) is a highly targeted approach to treat cancer since it converts hydrogen peroxide into harmful hydroxyl radicals (OH·) through Fenton or Fenton-like reactions. However, the systemic toxicity of metal-based CDT agents has limited their clinical applications. Herein, a metal-free CDT agent: 2,4,6-tri(4-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPT)/ [closo-B12 H12 ]2- (TPT@ B12 H12 ) is reported. Compared to the traditional metal-based CDT agents, TPT@B12 H12 is free of metal avoiding cumulative toxicity during long-term therapy. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation revealed that TPT@B12 H12 decreased the activation barrier more than 3.5 times being a more effective catalyst than the Fe2+ ion (the Fenton reaction), which decreases the barrier about twice. Mechanismly, the theory calculation indicated that both [B12 H12 ]-· and [TPT-H]2+ have the capacity to decompose hydrogen into 1 O2 , OH·, and O2 -· . With electron paramagnetic resonance and fluorescent probes, it is confirmed that TPT@B12 H12 increases the levels of 1 O2 , OH·, and O2 -· . More importantly, TPT@B12 H12 effectively suppress the melanoma growth both in vitro and in vivo through 1 O2 , OH·, and O2 -· generation. This study specifically highlights the great clinical translational potential of TPT@B12 H12 as a CDT reagent.

Like Charges Attract?

Using multiscale first-principles calculations, we show that two interacting negatively charged B12I9(-) monoanions not only attract, in defiance of the Coulomb's law, but also the energy barrier at 400 K is small enough that these two moieties combine to form a stable B24I18(2-) moiety. Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations further confirm its stability up to 1500 K. Studies of other B12X9(-) (X = Br, Cl, F, H, Au, CN) show that while all of these B24X18(2-) moieties are stable against dissociation, the energy barrier, with the exception of B24Au18(2-), is large so as to hinder their experimental observation. Our results explain the recent experimental observation of the "spontaneous" formation of B24I18(2-) in an ion trap. A simple model based upon electrostatics shows that this unusual behavior is due to competition between the attractive dipole-dipole interaction caused by the aspherical shape of the particle and the repulsive interaction between the like charges.

Protic anions [H(B12X12)]- (X = F, Cl, Br, I) that act as Brønsted acids in the gas phase

The acidity of protic cations and neutral molecules has been studied extensively in the gas phase, and the gas-phase acidity has been established previously as a very useful measure of the intrinsic acidity of neutral and cationic compounds. However, no data for any anionic acids were available prior to this study. The protic anions [H(B12X12)](-) (X = F, Cl, Br, I) are expected to be the most acidic anions known to date. Therefore, they were investigated in this study with respect to their ability to protonate neutral molecules in the gas phase by using a combination of mass spectrometry and quantum-chemical calculations. For the first time it was shown that in the gas phase protic anions are also able to protonate neutral molecules and thus act as Brønsted acids. According to theoretical calculations, [H(B12I12)](-) is the most acidic gas-phase anion, whereas in actual protonation experiments [H(B12Cl12)](-) is the most potent gas-phase acidic anion for the protonation of neutral molecules. This discrepancy is explained by ion pairing and kinetic effects.