Theoretical Designs for Planar Tetracoordinated Carbon in Cu, Ag, and Au Organometallic Chemistry: A New Target for Synthesis

Structure and Bonding in Planar Hypercoordinate Carbon Compounds

The term hypercoordination refers to the extent of the coordination of an element by its normal value. In the hypercoordination sphere, the element can achieve planar and/or non-planar molecular shape. Hence, planar hypercoordinate carbon species violate two structural rules: (i) The highest coordination number of carbon is four and (ii) the tetrahedral orientation by the connected elements and/or groups. The unusual planar orientations are mostly stabilized by the electronic interactions of the central atom with the surrounding ligands. In this review article, we will talk about the current progress in the theoretical prediction of viable planar hypercoordinate carbon compounds. Primary knowledge of the planar hypercoordinate chemistry will lead to its forthcoming expansion. Experimental and theoretical interests in planar tetracoordinate carbon (ptC), planar pentacoordinate carbon (ppC), and planar hexacoordinate carbon (phC) are continued. The proposed electronic and mechanical strategies are helpful for the designing of the ptC compounds. Moreover, the 18-valence electron rule can guide the design of new ptC clusters computationally as well as experimentally. However, the counting of 18-valence electrons is not a requisite condition to contain a ptC in a cluster. Furthermore, this ptC idea is expanded to the probability of a greater coordination number of carbon in planar orientations. Unfortunately, until now, there are no such logical approaches to designing ppC, phC, or higher-coordinate carbon molecules/ions. There exist a few global minimum structures of phC clusters identified computationally, but none have been detected experimentally. All planar hypercoordinate carbon species in the global minima may be feasible in the gas phase.

Recent advances in planar tetracoordinate carbon chemistry

We summarize our contributions on the quest of new planar tetracoordinate carbon entities (new carbon molecules with exotic chemical structures and strange bonding schemes). We give special emphasis on the rationalization why in this type of molecules the planar configuration is favored over the tetrahedral one. We will concentrate on the latter and will show that molecules containing planar tetracoordinate carbons have a stabilizing system of delocalized pi electrons, which shows similar properties as pi systems in aromatic molecules.

Synthesis and structural characterization of one- and two-dimensional coordination polymers based on platinum–silver metallic backbones

Seven Pt-Ag coordination polymers [Pt(NH3)2(NHCO(t)Bu)2Ag(H2O)](ClO4) (1), [Pt2(dap)2(NHCO(t)Bu)4Ag2(NO3)(ClO4)] (dap = 1,2-diaminopropane, 2), [Pt2(en)2(NHCO(t)Bu)4Ag2(m-C6H4(CO2)2)].3H2O (en = ethylenediamine, 3), [Pt2(NH3)2(NHCO(t)Bu)2Ag2(p-C6H4(CO2)2)].2H2O (4), [Pt3(en)3(NHCO(t)Bu)6Ag2(p-C6H4(CO2)2)(1.5)].6H2O (5), [Pt(NH3)2(NHCO(t)Bu)4Ag(4-C5H4NCO2)2].10H2O (6), and [Pt2(en)2(NHCO(t)Bu)4Ag2(4-C5H4NCO2)](ClO4) (7) were synthesized from the corresponding [Pt(RNH2)2(NHCO(t)Bu)2] and Ag salts, respectively, and their structures were determined by X-ray crystallography. The Pt and Ag units aggregate into one-dimensional chains based on Pt-Ag backbones. Compounds 1, 2, and 6 possess an extended zigzag Pt-Ag chain motif, and the metallic chains arrange in a parallel fashion into layered structures. Compounds 3-5, and 7 form 2-D brick wall sheets due to the coordination of the bifunctional anions to the Ag+ ions of the neighboring chains. These polymers are constructed based on the Pt-Ag interactions and the coordination of amidate oxygen atoms to Ag ions. There are three kinds of short Pt-Ag bonds observed in the structures of these compounds. The Pt-Ag metallic backbone is formed by the stacking unsupported Pt-Ag bonds, the amidate doubly bridged Pt-Ag bonds, and the amidate singly bridged Pt-Ag bonds. In the chains, the Pt-Ag bond distances are quite short, and appear in the range of 2.78-2.97 A, which are comparable to known Pt-Ag dative bonds.