Abstract
We report here the structure of an endohedral plumbaspherene, [Cu4Pb22]4–, the gold analogue of which was previously postulated to be a “missing link” in the growth of larger clusters containing three and four icosahedral subunits. The cluster contains two [Cu2Pb11]2– subunits linked through a Cu2Pb4 trigonal antiprism. Density functional theory reveals that the striking ability of mixed Pb/coinage metal Zintl clusters to oligomerize and, in the case of Au, to act as a site of nucleation for additional metal atoms, is a direct consequence of their nd10(n + 1)s0 configuration, which generates both a low-lying (n + 1)s-based LUMO and also a high-lying Pb-centered HOMO. Cluster growth and nucleation is then driven by this amphoteric character, allowing the clusters to form donor–acceptor interactions between adjacent icosahedral units or to additional metal atoms.
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