Isolobal Analogies in Intermetallics: The Reversed Approximation MO Approach and Applications to CrGa4- and Ir3Ge7‑Type Phases

Intermetallic phases offer a wealth of unique and unexplained structural features, which pose exciting challenges for the development of new bonding concepts. In this article, we present a straightforward approach to rapidly building bonding descriptions of such compounds: the reversed approximation Molecular Orbital (raMO) method. In this approach, we reverse the usual technique of using linear combinations of simple functions to approximate true wave functions and employ the fully occupied crystal orbitals of a compound as a basis set for the determination of the eigenfunctions of a simple, chemically transparent model Hamiltonian. The solutions fall into two sets: (1) a series of functions representing the best-possible approximations to the model system’s eigenstates constructible from the occupied crystal orbitals and (2) a second series of functions that are orthogonal to the bonding picture represented by the model Hamiltonian. The electronic structure of a compound is thus quickly resolved into a series of orthogonal bonding subsystems. We first demonstrate the raMO analysis on a familiar molecule, 1,3-butadiene, and then move to illustrating its use in discovering new bonding phenomena through applications to three intermetallic phases: the PtHg4-type CrGa4 and the Ir3Ge7-type compounds Os3Sn7 and Ir3Sn7. For CrGa4, a density of states (DOS) minimum coinciding with its Fermi energy is traced to 18-electron configurations on the Cr atoms. For Os3Sn7 and Ir3Sn7, 18-electron configurations also underlie DOS pseudogaps. This time, however, the 18-electron counts involve multicenter interactions isolobal with classical Ir–Ir or Os–Os covalent bonds, as well as Sn–Sn single bonds serving as electron reservoirs. Our results are based on DFT-calibrated Hückel calculations, but in principle the raMO analysis can be implemented in any method employing one-electron wave functions.