Series of metal-nonmetal-metal sandwich compounds: out-of-plane sigma-aromaticity and electric properties.
A new class of metal-nonmetal-metal sandwich structures M3-CO3-M3' (M, M' = Li, Na, K) with all real frequencies is obtained at the second-order Möller-Plesset theory (MP2) method with the 6-311+G (2d) basis set. Because the sandwich molecule M3-CO3-M3' is composed of superatoms (M3, CO3, and M3'), it is a sandwich "superomolecule". The superatoms M3 and M3' are electron donors and CO3 is the acceptor, and then there is a strong charge transfer between M3 (or M3') and CO3 superatom, so M3-CO3-M3' can be denoted as M3(+)CO3(2-)M3'(+). Owing to the CO3(2-) anion in the middle repulsing the valence electrons of two metal rings (M3 and M3') forming a pair of excess electrons, the compound with excess electrons is also a novel electride. In metal-nonmetal-metal sandwich compound M3(+)CO3(2-)M3'(+), superatom units M3(+) and M3'(+) exhibit unusual sigma-aromaticity: the maximum negative nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICSmax) value of each aromatic ring (M3(+) and M3'(+)) does not locate at the center of the ring plane but locates outside the ring plane. The distance value from the center of the M3(+) or M3'(+) ring plane to the point with NICSmax ranges from 0.8 to 1.9 A. This shows a notable out-of-plane sigma-aromaticity for these sandwich compounds. What is the reason? We find that the out-of-plane sigma-aromaticity of M3(+) (or M3'(+)) results from the action of CO3(2-)M3'(+) (or M3(+)CO3(2-)). For electric property, on account of excess electrons, the sandwich electride M3-CO3-M3' without the central symmetry can exhibit large static first hyperpolarizability (beta0). For Na3-CO3-K3, the beta0 value is close to 56,000 au.
Chen
Mi-Mi
MM
State Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, China.
Ma
Fang
F
Li
Zhi-Ru
ZR
Li
Zong-Jun
ZJ
Wang
Qin
Q
Sun
Chia-Chung
CC