Large coordination complexes:
synthesis, characterisation and properties
Chem.
Met. Alloys 2
(2009) 1-9
https://doi.org/10.30970/cma2.0092
Two aspects of the chemistry of polynuclear complexes are discussed. The first part concerns the application of electrospray mass spectrometry to such complexes. The concept of pseudoisotopic
molecules is introduced as two chemical entities which have similar chemical
behaviour but which differ in mass and may thus be distinguished in the mass
spectrum. It is shown how mixtures of pseudoisotopes readily allow the identification of the nuclearity of complexes.
Studies of the exchange of pseudoisotopes show
surprising variations in labilty. In favorable cases the evolution of the mass spectrum yields
information on the mechanism of the assembly.
In the second part we discuss a strategy for the synthesis of large
molecular cages, based on the fullerene topology, but using coordinative
bonding to assemble the structure.
The construction of large polynuclear
clusters poses new problems of synthesis, and characterisation, and the
resulting clusters show surprising variations in reactivity.
Keywords
Coordination chemistry / Supramolecular chemistry / Molecular cages / Electrospray mass spectrometry / Polynuclear
complexes