In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers in Germany have successfully isolated a unique four-atom bismuth species that exhibits aromatic bonding character. This marks the first time an all-metal ring with aromatic properties has been synthesized in a lab setting. The unique structure of this bismuth species has raised important questions about the nature of aromaticity in materials composed of heavier elements.
Aromaticity has long been a mysterious phenomenon in the field of chemistry, despite centuries of study. While students often learn about aromatic carbon rings such as benzene, the creation of similar compounds using only metal atoms has proven to be a significant challenge. In the early 2000s, spectroscopic evidence of aromatic all-metal species Al42˗ and antiaromatic Al44˗ was reported. However, the isolation of aromatic metal rings, such as those composed of gallium, gold, and thorium, has required the presence of non-metal stabilizing substituents.
A team led by Florian Weigend and Lutz Greb has achieved the isolation of a cationic Bi44+ aromatic ring. This unique structure forms a planar rhomboid shape and is held together non-covalently between two shells, each containing an indium bromide core bound within a cyclic ligand composed of four pyrrole units. Interestingly, the Bi44+ ring exhibits isoelectronic properties with the antiaromatic Al44˗ species, suggesting that the distribution
