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Stable Tetra‐ and Penta‐Anions in the Gas Phase
Author(s) -
Fang Hong,
Jena Puru
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201903044
Subject(s) - solvation , tetra , chemistry , gas phase , ion , phase (matter) , charge (physics) , chemical physics , electron affinity (data page) , crystallography , computational chemistry , molecule , organic chemistry , medicinal chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
The quest for stable gas‐phase anions in highly negative charge states has been a great challenge. While multiply charged anions are stabilized in solids and liquids by compensating cations and solvation cells, respectively, stable anions containing less than a hundred atoms in the gas phase and capable of carrying charge beyond −3 is unknown. Here, we report the discovery of thermodynamically stable tetra‐ and penta‐anions, containing less than 50 and 80 atoms, respectively, in the gas phase. A universal model is developed that explains their stability in terms of the synergy between closed shell, high electron affinity, and size and predicts new highly‐charged anions by using the known charged clusters as building blocks. Synthesis of these species can open a new chapter in materials chemistry.