Recent Advances in the Chemistry of "Clusters" and Coordination Polymers of Alkali, Alkaline Earth Metal and Group 11 Compounds

• Published in: Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie (1950) 2005-08, Vol.631 (10), p.1725-1740
• Main Authors: Fromm, Katharina M., Gueneau, Estelle D., Robin, Adeline Y., Maudez, William, Sague, Jorge, Bergougnant, Rémi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alkali metals; Alkaline earth metals; Cage compounds; Clusters; Coordination polymers; Structural investigations; Structure prediction
• ISSN: 0044-2313; 1521-3749
• DOI: 10.1002/zaac.200500079

This contribution gives an overview on the different subjects treated in our group. One of our fundamental interests lies in the synthesis and study of low‐dimensional polymer and molecular solid state structures. We have chosen several synthetic approaches in order to obtain such compounds. Firstly, the concept of cutting out structural fragments from a solid state structure of a binary compound will be explained on behalf of BaI2. Oxygen donor ligands, used as chemical scissors on BaI2, allow obtaining three‐, two‐, one‐ and zero‐dimensional derived compounds depending on their size and concentration. Thus, a structural genealogy tree for BaI2 can be established. This method, transferred to alkali halides using crown ethers and calix[n]arenes as delimiting ligands, leads us to the subject of one‐dimensional ionic channels. A second chapter deals with the supramolecular approach for the synthesis of different dimensional polymer structures derived from alkaline earth metal iodides, and based on the combination of metal ion coordination with hydrogen bonding between the cationic complexes and their anions. Under certain circumstances, rules can be established for the prediction of the dimensionality of a given compound, thus contributing to the fundamental problem of structure prediction in crystal engineering. A third part describes a fundamentally new synthetic pathway for generating pure alkaline earth metal cage compounds as well as alkali and alkaline earth mixed metal clusters. In a first step, different molecular precursors, such as solvated alkaline earth metal halides are investigated as a function of the ligand size and reactivity. They are then reacted with some alkali metal compound in order to partially eliminate alkali halide and to form the clusters. The so obtained unique structures of ligand stabilized metal halide, hydroxide and/or alkoxide and aryloxide aggregates are of interest as potential precursors for oxide materials. Approaches to two synthetic methods of the latter, sol‐gel and (MO)‐CVD, are investigated with our compounds. In order to generate single source precursors for oxide materials, we started to investigate transition metal ions, especially Cu and Ag, using multitopic ligands. This has led us into the fundamental problematic of “crystal engineering” and solid state structure prediction and we found ourselves confronted to numerous interesting cases of polymorphism and pseudo‐polymorphism. Weak interactions, such as π‐stac