Symmetry collapse due to the presence of multiple local aromaticity in Ge24 4−

Abstract

Gaining insight on the structural transformations from atomic clusters to bulk materials is challenging. Here the authors synthesize a continuous cluster of germanium Ge24 4−, which can be viewed as two terminal Ge9 units bridged via a Ge6 central fragment, and characterize it by several techniques including X-ray diffraction; theoretical analysis indicates the presence of three aligned independent aromatic fragments.