Valence bonds in elongated boron clusters

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. A well-defined class of planar or quasi-planar elongated boron clusters, of type Bq-7+3n, serves as a basis to identify the valence bond picture of delocalized boron networks. The origin of the series is the B-7 cluster, which exhibits σ-aromaticity. The cluster generating step is the repetitive expansion by three boron atoms in the direction of elongation. Specific electron counting rules are obtained for π-bonding, peripheral σ-bonding and multicenter inner σ-bonding. A valence bond structure is introduced which explains the remarkable regularity in the bonding pattern. The analysis supports 4c-2e bonds as an alternative to the common 3c-2e bonds. The results are validated by symmetry induction and ab initio calculations.

Publication year:2018

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Authors:International

Authors from:Higher Education

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