The Formal Oxidation States of Iridium Now Run from −III to +IX†
We thank Prof. Dage Sundholm for organizing the support from The Academy of Finland (Project 275845) for W.-H.X. at Helsinki and the Northwest University, Xi'an for a leave of absence.
Graphical Abstract
Rarer than a new element: Recently Wang et al. produced the [(Ir+IX)O4]+ ion by a pulsed laser vaporization/thermal expansion method and studied it by IR photodissociation spectroscopy. The oxidation state of +IX had been unknown previously. The picture shows the mass spectra for the argon-tagged iridium oxide species.