Masterpieces of cubism: nanoscale LiH clusters

摘要

Well-defined molecuLar hydride complexes of the alkali metals are still very rare, despite great potential importance for chemical synthesis, catalysis and hydrogen storage applications, and their parent metal hydrides are too insoluble and stable for many applications. Theoretical studies suggest that nanosized metaL hydride clusters have significantly different and highly beneficial properties, compared with their bulk phases, though the generation of the nanoclusters remains a synthetic challenge. Now, Andreas Stasch from Monash University reports on the bottom-up synthesis and characterisation of a family of ligand-stabilised LiH compounds with metal-hydride cores in the nanometre region (Stasch A. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 1338-41).