Theoretical study of polyoxide clusters B20O30, Al20O30, V20O50, Si20O30H20, and Si20O30F20

The structural, electronic, and vibrational characteristics and energies of the isolated polyoxide clusters B₂₀O₃₀, Al₂₀O₃₀, V₂₀O₅₀, Si₂₀O₃₀H₂₀, and Si₂₀O₃₀F₂₀ and their complexes with the H⁻ ion and ammonia complexes Al₂₀O₃₀ · nNH₃ have been calculated by the density functional theory B3LYP method with different basis sets. The computation results show that the symmetric closo structure I _h with oxygen bridges located above the centers of the faces of an empty M₂₀] dodecahedron is more favorable for V₂₀O₅₀, Si₂₀O₃₀H₂₀, and Si₂₀O₃₀F₂₀. For B₂₀O₃₀, the cage closo isomer is also more favorable than the other isomers, but its structure is severely distorted as compared to a dodecahedron and has a symmetry close to C ₃ . For Al₂₀O₃₀, the I _h structure corresponds to a high-lying local minimum of the potential energy surface. For Al₂₀O₃₀, a set of unusual puckshaped isomers of symmetry C _i , with different numbers of four-coordinate atoms ^IVAl and three-coordinate atoms ^IIIO, was localized; these structures are more than 90 kcal/mol more favorable than the dodecahedron I _h . The most favorable isomer of Al₂₀O₃₀ contains twelve four-coordinate atoms ^IVAl and four five-coordinate atoms ^VAl. The energies of dissociation of the most favorable M₂₀O₃₀ clusters into the M₂O₃ (C _2v ) and M₄O₆ (T _d ) fragments and, in the case of Al₂₀O₃₀, also into the Al₈O₁₂ (O _h ) and Al₁₂O₁₈ (D _3d ) fragments, have been estimated. The conclusion has been drawn that these clusters can, in principle, exist and can be experimentally detected in the isolated state. Analogous calculations have been performed for ammonia complexes Al₂₀O₃₀ · nNH₃ with n varying from 1 to 20. The effect of solvation on the relative stability of the dodecahedral and puckshaped isomers of the Al₂₀O₃₀ cluster is observed. The isomers with ammonia molecules in their first coordination sphere become much closer to one another on the energy scale; however, the dodecahedron remains a considerably less favorable intermediate. Original Russian Text ? O.P. Charkin, N.M. Klimenko, D.O. Charkin, 2008, published in Zhurnal Neorganicheskoi Khimii, 2008, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 624–635.