An Autonomous Chemical Robot Discovers the Rules of Inorganic Coordination Chemistry without Prior Knowledge

We present a chemical discovery robot for the efficient and reliable discovery of supramolecular architectures through the exploration of a huge reaction space exceeding ten billion combinations. The system was designed to search for areas of reactivity found through autonomous selection of the reagent types, amounts, and reaction conditions aiming for combinations that are reactive. The process consists of two parts where reagents are mixed together, choosing from one type of aldehyde, one amine and one azide (from a possible family of two amines, two aldehydes and four azides) with different volumes, ratios, reaction times, and temperatures, whereby the reagents are passed through a copper coil reactor. Next, either cobalt or iron is added, again from a large number of possible quantities. The reactivity was determined by evaluating differences in pH, UV‐Vis, and mass spectra before and after the search was started. The algorithm was focused on the exploration of interesting regions, as defined by the outputs from the sensors, and this led to the discovery of a range of 1‐benzyl‐(1,2,3‐triazol‐4‐yl)‐N‐alkyl‐(2‐pyridinemethanimine) ligands and new complexes: [Fe(L¹)₂](ClO₄)₂ ( 1 ); [Fe(L²)₂](ClO₄)₂ ( 2 ); [Co₂(L³)₂](ClO₄)₄ ( 3 ); [Fe₂(L³)₂](ClO₄)₄ ( 4 ), which were crystallised and their structure confirmed by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction determination, as well as a range of new supramolecular clusters discovered in solution using high‐resolution mass spectrometry.     

Angular resolved autoionization spectroscopy of N2 on Ni(110)

Angular resolved autoionization spectra after core to bound excitation of N₂ adsorbed on Ni(110) are presented. The experimental autoionization spectra are compared with calculated spectra for the model system Ni---N---N by application of the many-body Green's function technique using SCF-MO-CNDO one particle wavefunctions. The angular dependences of the autoionization lines are explicitly calculated. The theoretical approach allows one to assign the spectra obtained after core to bound excitation including angular effects within the framework of molecular orbital theory. The assignment is compared with results for the CO on Ni(110) system.