Not sure if it's explicitly mentioned anywhere but to me it smells that there's some serious serendipity at play here. They built an already pretty cool Bismuth

Not sure if it's explicitly mentioned anywhere but to me it smells that there's some serious serendipity at play here. They built an already pretty cool Bismuth complex and tested its use in metal-swapping reactions, when a solid material was (unexpectedly? you bet...) identified as having that awesome bismuth ring. The yields aren't even that bad at 28%! This weirdness, that anything weird can happen at any time, leading to misery or a nature paper, is what makes chemistry so interesting and frustrating. Relevant passage from the Nature article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-024-01530-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-024-01530-z) During our investigation of 2 as a transmetallation agent, we observed an unusual reactivity with InBr3. The reaction of 2 with InBr3 in dichloromethane resulted in a rapid colour change from light orange to dark red. After standing for 3 days at room temperature, dark-coloured crystals of 3 developed (Fig. 3f). The synthesis is reproducible, yielding up to 28% of isolated 3. scXRD analysis showed a planar rhomboid {Bi4} ring encapsulated by two indiumbromide-calix[4]pyrrolates (...)