An Icosahedral 55-Atom Iron Hydride Cluster Protected by Tri-tert-butylphosphines

Area of Science:

• Inorganic Chemistry
• Nanotechnology
• Materials Science

Background:

• Nanoclusters exhibit unique properties due to metal-metal bonding and low oxidation states.
• Synthesizing nanometer-sized iron clusters is challenging due to weak iron-iron bonds and high reactivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report the synthesis and characterization of a stable nanometer-sized iron cluster.
• To explore the fundamental properties of iron nanoclusters.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of a cationic 55-atom iron cluster.
• Characterization using techniques to determine structure and properties.
• Analysis of the icosahedral core structure and ligand environment.

Main Results:

• Successfully synthesized a 1.2 nm icosahedral iron cluster with 55 atoms.
• Identified tri-tert-butylphosphines at the vertices and hydrides on the surface.
• The cluster's face-centered cubic (fcc) substructure differs from bulk iron's body-centered cubic (bcc) phase.

Conclusions:

• A stable structure and fundamental properties of a nanometer-sized iron cluster have been revealed.
• The simple synthetic protocol facilitates further exploration of iron nanochemistry.
• This work overcomes long-standing challenges in iron cluster synthesis.