A Simple Synthesis of Triangular All-Metal Aromatics Allowing Access to Isolobal All-Metal Heteroaromatics

A simple synthetic method allows the one-pot assembly of C-3-symmetric, 44-core-valence-electron, triangular Pd or Pt clusters and their heterobimetallic mixed Pd/Pt analogues. These mixed metal complexes are the first examples of stable triangular all-metal heteroaromatics. In contrast to traditional heteroaromatic molecules formed combining main-group elements, they actually retain structural and electronic features of their homonuclear analogues.