While double bonds are known for transition metals of Groups 9 and 10 as well as for boron and p-block elements of Groups 14-16, Zn sits in a small region of the periodic table with no well-characterized double bonds. A qualitative reasoning indicates that zero-valent zinc has the potential to form Zn=Zn double bonds. A computational study in search for complexes that might showcase this new bond type is presented here.
Keywords: density functional calculations; double bonds; metal-metal bonding; zinc.
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