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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Isolating Free Carbenes, their Mixed Dimers and Organic Radicals
Published on: April 19, 2019
Starlike aluminum-carbon aromatic species
Yan-Bo Wu1, Jin-Liang Jiang, Hai-Gang Lu
1College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, PR China.
Abstract:
Is it possible to achieve molecules with starlike structures by replacing the H atoms in (CH)(n)(q) aromatic hydrocarbons with aluminum atoms in bridging positions? Although D(4h) C(4)Al(4)(2-) and D(2) C(6)Al(6) are not good prospects for experimental realization, a very extensive computational survey of fifty C(5)Al(5)(-) isomers identified the starlike D(5h) global minimum with five planar tetracoordinate carbon atoms to be a promising candidate for detection by photoelectron detachment spectroscopy. BOMD (Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics) simulations and high-level theoretical computations verified this conclusion. The combination of favorable electronic and geometric structural features (including aromaticity and optimum C-Al-C bridge bonding) stabilizes the C(5)Al(5)(-) star preferentially.
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