Structural Stability and Evolution of Medium-Sized Tantalum-Doped Boron Clusters: A Half-Sandwich-Structured TaB₁₂^-...

Transition-metal (TM)-doped boron clusters have received considerable attention in recent years, in part, because of their remarkable size-dependent structural and electronic properties. However, the structures of medium-sized boron clusters doped with TM atoms are still not well-known because of the much increased complexity of the potential surface as well as the rapid increase in the number of low-energy isomers, which are the challenges in cluster structural searches. Here, by means of an unbiased structure search, we systematically investigated the structural evolution of medium-sized tantalum-doped boron clusters, TaB_n^0/- (n = 10-20). The results revealed that TaB_n^0/- (n = 10-15) clusters adopt half-sandwich molecular geometries, with the notable exception of TaB₁₀^-, while for n = 16-18 and 19-20, the lowest-energy clusters are characterized by drum-type geometries and tubular molecules with two B atoms on the top, respectively. Good agreement between the calculated and experimental photoelectron spectra strongly support the validity of our global minimum structures. Molecular orbital and adaptive natural density partitioning analyses indicate that the enhanced stability of half-sandwich TaB₁₂^- is due to the strong interaction of the Ta atom (5d orbitals) with surrounding B atoms (2p orbitals) and σ B-B bonds in the B₁₂ moiety.