Eight-electron Pt/Cu superatom encapsulating three “electron-donating” hydrides

• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads4488
• Publication Date: 2025-01-08T18:59:23Z
• Authors: Ayisha He; Dongjie Zuo; Guangmei Jiang; Xiongkai Tang; Lin Wang; Liubin Feng; Zaiwang Zhao; Jianyu Wei; Nanfeng Zheng; Hui Shen
• Keywords: Superatom; Nanoclusters; Valence electron

Hydrides in metal complexes or nanoclusters are typically viewed as electron-withdrawing. Several recent reports have demonstrated the emergence of “electron-donating” hydrides tailoring structure, electronic and reactivity nanoclusters. However, number such included each cluster kernel is limited to one two. There even no structure model, neither theoretical nor experimental, for encapsulating a third electron-donating hydride into entity. Here, we present structurally precise superatomic nanocluster, PtH 3 Cu 23 (iso-propyl-PhS) 18 (PPh ) 4 (PtH ), which contains three interstitial hydrides. The molecular describes encapsulation PtCu 12 core that distorted anticuboctahedral architecture, an outer sphere consisting copper atoms thiolate phosphine ligands. Density functional theory calculations reveal contribute their valence electrons electron count eight. In this regard, represents rare Pt-included copper-hydride superatom with eight free electrons.