Hydride-Mediated Controlled Growth of a Bimetallic (Pd@Au8)2+ Superatom to a Hydride-Doped (HPd@Au10)3+ Superatom.

A hydride (H-)-doped bimetallic superatom (HPdAu8)+ was produced by reacting BH4- with an oblate (PdAu8)2+ superatom protected by PPh3. The H atom in (HPdAu8)+ survived during the sequential addition of Au(I)Cl to form an (HPdAu10)3+ superatom, in sharp contrast to the proton release from a H--doped pure gold superatom (HAu9)2+ in the growth process to (Au11)3+. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and density functional theory calculations on (HPdAu10)3+ showed that the interstitially doped H atom induced a notable deformation of the core.