Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-4-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-2/section-h/33/b/v/solution

For the neutral aluminium cluster,
This closes the listed sequence through 1I and supports the jellium description of a large metalloid cluster. Cp* ligands are counted as monovalent electron-withdrawing surface groups; counting each as a five-electron donor to the entire delocalized core would mix a transition-metal local electron-counting convention with the present shell model. Electron closure is a useful stability criterion, not by itself proof of a perfectly spherical nuclear geometry.

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