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U2O@C76: Non-Isolated-Pentagon-Rule Cages Prevail with the U2O Configuration Determined by Cage Shape and Dominated by Multicenter Bonds.

Debo HaoLe YangZhan WeiQinghua HouLanlan LiPeng Jin
Published in: Inorganic chemistry (2020)
Endohedral clusterfullerenes (ECFs) are fullerene cages with various metallic clusters trapped inside. So far, the actinide-based ECFs are rather scarce with their possible structures and chemistry remaining largely unexplored. Herein, density functional theory calculations characterized that the recently synthesized U2O@C76 could be U2O@Cs(17 490)-C76 or U2O@C2v(19 138)-C76, whose cages have two or one pentagon adjacencies (PAs) and thus both violate the isolated pentagon rule (IPR). It is noteworthy that they are the first actinide-based ECFs bearing non-IPR outer cages. They are also the first Cs(17 490)- and C2v(19 138)-C76-based oxide ECFs. Moreover, U2O@C2v(19 138)-C76 is the first example of a hexavalent metal cluster within the C2v(19 138)-C76 cage. Interestingly, although trapped by the two same-sized cages, the U2O unit exhibits a bent and a perfect linear configuration, respectively, indicative of the crucial role of cage shape in steering the internal cluster configuration. Their electronic structures can be formally described as (U2O)6+@C766- with primary electrostatic attractions and secondary covalent interactions between cluster and cage. Significantly, bonding analyses reveal that the encaged U2O moiety may only features two three-center, two-electron (3c-2e) U-O-U bonds with completely absent common two-center bonds.
Keyphrases
  • density functional theory
  • molecular dynamics
  • molecular dynamics simulations
  • gene expression
  • genome wide
  • cross sectional
  • solar cells
  • monte carlo