The paramagnetic cluster [Cu Al ](Cp*) was obtained from the reaction of [CuMes] and [AlCp*] (Cp*=η -C Me ; Mes=mesityl). This all-hydrocarbon ligand-stabilized M magic atom-number cluster features a Mackay-type nested icosahedral structure. Its open-shell 67-electron superatom configuration is unique. Three unpaired electrons occupy weakly antibonding jellium states. The situation prefigures the formation of a conduction band, which is in line with the measured temperature-independent magnetism. Steric protection by twelve Cp* ligands suppresses the intrinsic polyradicalar reactivity of the Cu Al core.

An atom-level understanding of the evolution of the physical and chemical properties of transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanoflakes is a key step to improve our knowledge of two-dimensional (2D) TMD materials, which can help in the designing of new 2D materials. Here, we report a density functional theory (DFT) study of the evolution of the structural, energetic, and electronic properties of (MoQ 2 ) n nanoflakes, where Q = S, Se, and Te and n = 1− 16. All optimized DFT configurations for each system (10n) were generated by an in-house implementation of the treegrowth scheme combined with the modified Euclidean similarity distance algorithm, which reduces a large set configurations (10n million) to 10n trial structures. We found that the energetic favored configurations change between two sorts of clusters: frameworks elongated in one dimension with tetrahedral and square pyramidal coordination of Mo atoms, which is followed by 2D nanoflakes with tetrahedral, square pyramidal, and distorted octahedral coordination environments of Mo atoms. Both structure types maintain the same Qterminated edge configuration, a crucial factor for the increased stability of those nanoflakes in relation to stoichiometric 2H monolayer cuts. The structural properties of the lowest energy configurations evolve smoothly as a function of the nanoflake sizes. We found that more intense effects of charge transfer in the edges are an important factor for the stabilization of the 2D nanoflakes. The smaller charge transfer for larger Q radius leads to the increase of n, which stabilizes the 2D nanoflakes, namely, n = 6, 8, and 9 for MoS 2 , MoSe 2 , and MoTe 2 , respectively.

The thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of ethyl carbamate (EC) formation through the reaction between cyanate and ethanol were investigated. The rate constant values for cyanate ion decay and EC formation are (8.0 ± 0.4) × 10(-5) and (8.9 ± 0.4) × 10(-5) s(-1), respectively, at 25 °C in 48% aqueous ethanolic solution at pH 4.5. Under the investigated experimental conditions, the rate constants are independent of the ethanol and cyanate concentrations but increase as the temperature increases (ΔH1(⧧) = 19.4 ± 1 kcal/mol, ΔS1(⧧) = −12.1 ± 1 cal/K, and ΔG1(⧧) = 23.0 ± 1 kcal/mol) and decrease as the solution pH increases. According to molecular modeling (DFT) that was performed to analyze the reaction mechanism, the isocyanic acid (HNCO) is the active EC precursor. The calculated ΔG1(⧧), ΔH1(⧧), and ΔS1(⧧) values are in very good agreement with the experimental ones.