The isolable matryoshka nesting doll icosahedral cluster [As@Ni12@As20]3- as a "superatom": analogy with the jellium cluster Al13- generated in the gas phase by laser vaporization.
The valence electrons in the recently reported icosahedral cluster [As@Ni(12)@As(20)](3-) with a Russian matryoshka nesting doll structure can be partitioned so that the central As atom has the rare gas configuration, as As(3-), and the intermediate Ni(12) icosahedron receives 40 electrons from the lone pairs of the outer As(20) dodecahedron to be isoelectronic with the Al(13)(-) jellium cluster found in molecular beam experiments.
King
R Bruce
RB
Department of Chemistry and Center for Computational Chemistry, University of Georgia, Athens, USA. rbking@chem.uga.edu
Zhao
Jijun
J