The rise and fall of copper hydride clusters. a snapshot of hexanuclear-to-dodecanuclear expansion

A dodecanuclear copper hydride L 4 Cu 12 H 12 is shown to be a transient species after the cluster expansion from L 2 Cu 4 H 4 to L 3 Cu 6 H 6 and before the degradation to Cu(0), L, and H 2 .