Design of Stereoelectronically Promoted Super Lewis Acids and Unprecedented Chemistry of Their Complexes

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Authors

FOROUTANNEJAD Cina VÍCHA Jan MAREK Radek

Year of publication 2014
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Chemistry - A European Journal
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web DOI: 10.1002/chem.201402582
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201402582
Field Physical chemistry and theoretical chemistry
Keywords aluminum; bond theory; density functional calculations; Lewis acids; scandium
Attached files
Description A new family of stereoelectronically promoted aluminum and scandium super Lewis acids is introduced on the basis of state-of-the-art computations. Structures of these molecules are designed to minimize resonance electron donation to central metal atoms in the Lewis acids. Acidity of these species is evaluated on the basis of their fluoride-ion affinities relative to the antimony pentafluoride reference system. It is demonstrated that introduced changes in the stereochemistry of the designed ligands increase acidity considerably relative to Al and Sc complexes with analogous monodentate ligands. The high stability of fluoride complexes of these species makes them ideal candidates to be used as weakly coordinating anions in combination with highly reactive cations instead of conventional Lewis acid–fluoride complexes. Further, the interaction of all designed molecules with methane is investigated. All studied acids form stable pentavalent-carbon complexes with methane. In addition, interactions of the strongest acid of this family with very weak bases, namely, H2, N2, carbon oxides, and noble gases were investigated; it is demonstrated that this compound can form considerably stable complexes with the aforementioned molecules. To the best of our knowledge, carbonyl and nitrogen complexes of this species are the first hypothetical four-coordinated carbonyl and nitrogen complexes of aluminum. The nature of bonding in these systems is studied in detail by various bonding analysis approaches.
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