Electron counting approach to the structure and bonding of sandwiched low dimensional palladium clusters

Abstract One dimensional transition metal clusters are of theoretical and practical interest due to their special electronic and magnetic properties. One class of such clusters consists of a linear Pd moiety sandwiched between two olefin chains which act as a π-sheath. In this work, we provide a simple model, based on electron counting and basic background knowledge on coordination chemistry, to elucidate the structure and bonding properties of this kind of clusters. We also apply what we have learned from these simple examples to some other low-dimensional non-linear Pd clusters.