Bare Ionic Post-Transition Metal Clusters Zintl Phases

Bare Ionic Post-Transition Metal Clusters Zintl Phases 

The rules for counting the number of skeletal electrons contributed by each vertex atom can be adapted to vertices consisting of post-transition metals lacking external groups through the following considerations  

The post-transition metals under consideration use anine-orbital sp d valence orbital manifold. 

The post-transition metals (in their zero formal oxidation states) have a total of 10 + G valence electrons where G is the highest possible oxidation state of the post-transition metal. Thus, germanium, tin, and lead have 10 + 4 = 14 valence electrons arsenic, antimony, and bismuth have 10 + 5 = 15 valence electrons and selenium and tellurium have 10 + 6 = 16 valence electrons. 

If the clusters exhibit either 2D or 3D aromaticity as discussed in Section 10.3, three orbitals of each bare metal vertex atom will be required for the internal orbitals (two twin internal orbitals and one unique internal orbital). This leaves 9-3 = 6 external orbitals. Each external orbital of the bare metal vertex atom must be filled with an electron pair thereby consuming (2)(6) = 12 electrons from each bare metal vertex atom. 

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Bare Ionic Post-transition Metal Clusters The Zintl Phases... 

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