Credit: Image courtesy of Tianshan Zhao, Virginia Commonwealth University and Peking University
Welcome trianions. Normally, multiply negatively charged species are not predicted to be stable in the gas phase because of strong electrostatic repulsion between the extra electrons. However, new design rules have identified trianions, molecules with stable ground state structures. The artist’s rendering shows three recently discovered gas-phase molecules that exhibit this unusual structural stability. The molecules contain one beryllium (lime green) and 11 boron atoms forming an icosahedral cage. These molecules are bound to twelve other molecules to displace the negative charge, further stabilizing these unusual molecules.