Modular bonding picture for aromatic borometallic molecular wheels

Borometallic molecular wheel is a special class of clusters with a planar ring of boron atoms surrounding a transition metal center, and its distinctive geometry and atypical electronic structure make this class of clusters an interesting target for theoretical analysis. Previous adaptive natural density partitioning analyses have provided a bonding picture for them. In this work, we take a slightly different perspective on their bonding, by considering such clusters as coordination complexes. We find that these clusters can be understood through a simple modular bonding picture, which could be applied to a number of related complexes/clusters.