[B30]−: A Quasiplanar Chiral Boron Cluster1. (3rd April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Wei‐Li; Zhao, Ya‐Fan; Hu, Han‐Shi; Li, Jun; Wang, Lai‐Sheng
• Is Part Of: Angewandte Chemie. Volume 126:Number 22(2014)
• Page Start: 5646
• Page End: 5651
• Publication Date: 2014-04-03
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/ange.201402488
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0044-8249

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Chirality is vital in chemistry. Its importance in atomic clusters has been recognized since the discovery of the first chiral fullerene, the <italic>D</italic>₂ symmetric C₇₆.<xref ref-type="link" rid="bib1">1</xref> A number of gold clusters have been found to be chiral, <xref ref-type="link" rid="bib2">2</xref> raising the possibility to use them as asymmetric catalysts. The discovery of clusters with enantiomeric structures is essential to design new chiral materials with tailored chemical and physical properties.<xref ref-type="link" rid="bib3">3</xref> Herein we report the first inherently chiral boron cluster of [B₃₀]⁻ in a joint photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical study. The most stable structure of [B₃₀]⁻ is found to be quasiplanar with a hexagonal hole. Interestingly, a pair of enantiomers arising from different positions of the hexagonal hole are found to be degenerate in our global minimum searches and both should co‐exist experimentally because they have identical electronic structures and give rise to identical simulated photoelectron spectra.</p> </abstract>