@article{Shen2021, 
author = {Hui Shen and Lingzheng Wang and Omar López-Estrada and Chengyi Hu and Qingyuan Wu and Dongxu Cao and Sami Malola and Boon K. Teo and Hannu Häkkinen and Nanfeng Zheng},
title = {Copper-hydride nanoclusters with enhanced stability by N-heterocyclic carbenes},
year = {2021},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {14},
number = {9},
pages = {3303-3308},
keywords = {metal clusters, copper-hydride, N-heterocylic carbene, stability, superatom},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-021-3389-9},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-021-3389-9},
abstract = {Copper-hydrides have been intensively studied for a long time due to their utilization in a variety of technologically important chemical transformations. Nevertheless, poor stability of the species severely hinders its isolation, storage and operation, which is worse for nano-sized ones. We report here an unprecedented strategy to access to ultrastable copper-hydride nanoclusters (NCs), namely, using bidentate N-heterocyclic carbenes as stabilizing ligands in addition to thiolates. In this work, a simple synthetic protocol was developed to synthesize the first large copper-hydride nanoclusters (NCs) stabilized by N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs). The NC, with the formula of Cu31(RS)25(NHC)3H6 (NHC = 1,4-bis(1-benzyl-1H-benzimidazol-1-ium-3-yl) butane, RS = 4-fluorothiophenol), was fully characterized by high resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrum, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultra-violet visible spectroscopy, density functional theory (DFT) calculations and single-crystal X-ray crystallography. Structurally, the title cluster exhibits unprecedented Cu4 tetrahedron-based vertex-sharing (TBVS) superstructure (fusion of six Cu4 tetrahedra). Moreover, the ultrahigh thermal stability renders the cluster a model system to highlight the power of NHCs (even other carbenes) in controlling geometrical, electronic and surface structure of polyhydrido copper clusters.}
}