Issue 4, 2017

A universal mechanism of the planar boron rotors B11, B13+, B15+, and B19: inner wheels rotating in pseudo-rotating outer bearings

Abstract

Planar boron clusters B11, B13+, B15+, and B19 have been introduced recently as molecular Wankel motors or tank treads. Here we present a universal mechanism for these dynamically fluxional clusters; that is, they are molecular rotors with inner wheels that rotate almost freely in pseudo-rotating outer bearings, analogous to rotating molecules trapped in pseudo-rotating cages. This mechanism has significant quantum mechanical consequences: the global-minimum structures of the clusters have C2v symmetry, whereas the wheels rotating in pseudo-rotating bearings generate rosette-type shapes with D9h, D10h, D11h, and D13h symmetries. The related rotational/pseudo-rotational energies appear with characteristic band structures, effecting the dynamics.

Graphical abstract: A universal mechanism of the planar boron rotors B11−, B13+, B15+, and B19−: inner wheels rotating in pseudo-rotating outer bearings

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
22 Nov 2016
Accepted
29 Dec 2016
First published
29 Dec 2016

Nanoscale, 2017,9, 1443-1448

A universal mechanism of the planar boron rotors B11, B13+, B15+, and B19: inner wheels rotating in pseudo-rotating outer bearings

Y. Yang, D. Jia, Y. Wang, H. Zhai, Y. Man and S. Li, Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 1443 DOI: 10.1039/C6NR09074E

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