Chiral Jahn–Teller Distortion in Quasi-Planar Boron Clusters.

In this work, we have observed that some chiral boron clusters ( B 16 − , B 20 − , B 24 − , and B 28 − ) can simultaneously have helical molecular orbitals and helical spin densities; these seem to be the first compounds discovered to have this intriguing property. We show that chiral Jahn–Teller distortion of quasi-planar boron clusters drives the formation of the helical molecular spin densities in these clusters and show that elongation/enhancement in helical molecular orbitals can be achieved by simply adding more building blocks via a linker. Aromaticity of these boron clusters is discussed. Chiral boron clusters may find potential applications in spintronics, such as molecular magnets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]