Hydride-Mediated Controlled Growth of a Bimetallic (Pd@Au) Superatom to a Hydride-Doped (HPd@Au) Superatom.

A hydride (H)-doped bimetallic superatom (HPdAu) was produced by reacting BH with an oblate (PdAu) superatom protected by PPh. The H atom in (HPdAu) survived during the sequential addition of Au(I)Cl to form an (HPdAu) superatom, in sharp contrast to the proton release from a H-doped pure gold superatom (HAu) in the growth process to (Au). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and density functional theory calculations on (HPdAu) showed that the interstitially doped H atom induced a notable deformation of the core.