Gao Yan, Cui Tian, Li Da
State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
School of Physical Science and Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China.
Fundam Res. 2023 May 21;5(3):975-980. doi: 10.1016/j.fmre.2023.05.001. eCollection 2025 May.
As a 5-block main-group metal, tellurium generally loses its outermost electrons and forms ionic compounds upon encountering more electronegative elements under ambient conditions. Here, we report an unexpected orbital covalent interaction between the 5-block metal tellurium and the most electronegative element F at high pressure. In tellurium fluorides, the strong fluorine ligand field affects the effective nuclear charge of the metal atom and then affects the valence orbital energies of the central tellurium atom, incorporating unoccupied 5 orbitals of tellurium into the valence orbitals and interacting strongly with the valence orbitals of F atoms under high pressure. An electronic structure analysis of tellurium fluorides reveals the existence of strong covalent interactions in the Te-F system. This study is extremely valuable for advancing our understanding of chemical bonding and high-pressure main-group chemistry.
作为一种第五主族金属，碲在环境条件下遇到电负性更强的元素时，通常会失去其最外层电子并形成离子化合物。在此，我们报道了在高压下第五主族金属碲与电负性最强的元素氟之间存在意想不到的轨道共价相互作用。在碲的氟化物中，强氟配体场影响金属原子的有效核电荷，进而影响中心碲原子的价轨道能量，使碲的未占据5轨道纳入价轨道，并在高压下与氟原子的价轨道发生强烈相互作用。对碲的氟化物进行电子结构分析揭示了Te-F体系中存在强共价相互作用。这项研究对于增进我们对化学键合和高压主族化学的理解极具价值。
