Effect of Charge and Composition on the Structural Fluxionality and Stability of Nine Atom Tin−Bismuth Zintl Analogues

A Computational Exploration of Exohedrally Transition Metal Doped Si94- Superatom Based Magnetic MSi9M' Clusters (M, M' = Sc(II) to Cu(II))

Nanosized clusters are drawing immense attention of the scientific community due to their size and composition dependent tunability of physical and chemical properties. Silicon nanoclusters are especially important because of their abundance and ample utility in the domains of electronics and semiconductor industry. Zintl phases of Si offer an excellent opportunity in the domain of nanocluster research owing to their superior stability and multifarious possibilities of tunability of electronic properties through doping with other elements. Doping silicon clusters with transition elements is a prevalent strategy to induce magnetic properties in such clusters. Although doping silicon clusters with single transition metal atoms can induce significant magnetism in nanoclusters, the dominant covalent interaction between silicon and the transition metal causes the magnetic moment to quench. The rational strategy of inducing a sustainable magnetic moment can be to introduce ferromagnetic interaction between two sites carrying nonvanishing magnetic moments. In the present work, such a possibility is explored in terms of the stability of the clusters and corresponding magnetic exchange coupling in them. The Si94-superatomic cluster is doped with two transition metal atoms exohedrally and the neutral clusters designed thereby are investigated computationally if they reduce or reinforce the high stability of the superatom and substantiate the possibility of obtaining nanosized magnetic units as building blocks of tunable materials for various applications.

Photoelectron spectroscopic and computational studies of the Pt@Pb₁₀⁻¹ and Pt@Pb₁₂¹⁻/²⁻ anions

A combination of anion photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations has elucidated the geometric and electronic structure of gas-phase endohedral Pt/Pb cage cluster anions. The anions, Pt@Pb₁₀⁻¹ and Pt@Pb₁₂¹⁻ were prepared from "preassembled" clusters generated from crystalline samples of [K(2,2,2-crypt)]₂[Pt@Pb₁₂] that were brought into the gas phase using a unique infrared desorption/photoemission anion source. The use of crystalline [K(2,2,2-crypt)]₂[Pt@Pb₁₂] also provided access to K[Pt@Pb(n)](-) anions in the gas phase (i.e., the K⁺ salts of the Pt@Pb(n)²⁻ anions). Anion photoelectron spectra of Pt@Pb₁₀⁻¹, Pt@Pb₁₂¹⁻, and K[Pt@Pb₁₂]¹⁻ are presented. Extensive density functional theory calculations on Pt@Pb₁₀³⁻/²⁻/¹⁻/⁰ and Pt@Pb₁₂²⁻/¹⁻ provided candidate structures and anion photoelectron spectra for Pt@Pb₁₀⁻¹ and Pt@Pb₁₂¹⁻. Together, the calculated and measured photoelectron spectra show that Pt@Pb₁₀⁻¹ and Pt@Pb₁₂²⁻/¹⁻ endohedral complexes maintain their respective D(4d) and slightly distorted I(h) symmetries in the gas phase even for the charge states with open shell character. Aside from the fullerenes, the Pt@Pb₁₂²⁻ endohedral complex is the only bare cluster that has been structurally characterized in the solid state, solution, and the gas phase.