Cage-Like B41+ and B422+: New Chiral Members of the Borospherene Family

The newly discovered borospherenes B-40(-/0) and B-39(-) mark the onset of a new class of boron nanostructures. Based on extensive first-principles calculations, we introduce herein two new chiral members to the borospherene family: the cage-like C-1 B-41(+) (1) and C-2 B-42(2+) (2), both of which are the global minima of the systems with degenerate enantiomers. These chiral borospherene cations are composed of twelve interwoven boron double chains with six hexagonal and heptagonal faces and may be viewed as the cuborenes analogous to cubane (C8H8). Chemical bonding analyses show that there exists a three-center two-electron sigma bond on each B-3 triangle and twelve multicenter two-electron bonds over the sigma skeleton. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that C-1 B-41(+) (1) fluctuates above 300K, whereas C-2 B-42(2+) (2) remains dynamically stable. The infrared and Raman spectra of these borospherene cations are predicted to facilitate their experimental characterizations.