Reply to the 'Comment on "The oxidation state in low-valent beryllium and magnesium compounds"' by S. Pan and G. Frenking, , 2022, , DOI: 10.1039/D2SC04231B.

A recent article by Pan and Frenking challenges our assignment of the oxidation state of low valent group 2 compounds. With this reply, we show that our assignment of Be(+2) and Mg(+2) oxidation states in Be(cAAC) and Mg(cAAC) is fully consistent with our data. Some of the arguments exposed by Pan and Frenking were based on visual inspection of our figures, rather than a thorough numerical analysis.

The oxidation state in low-valent beryllium and magnesium compounds.

Low-valent group 2 (E = Be and Mg) stabilized compounds have been long synthetically pursued. Here we discuss the electronic structure of a series of Lewis base-stabilized Be and Mg compounds. Despite the accepted zero(0) oxidation state nature of the group 2 elements of some recent experimentally accomplished species, the analysis of multireference wavefunctions provides compelling evidence for a strong diradical character with an oxidation state of +2.