Self-Assembled Silver Polyhedra with Embedded Acetylide Dianion Stabilized by Perfluorocarboxylate and 4-Hydroxyquinoline Ligands

Dicarboxylic Acids Induced Tandem Transformation of Silver Nanocluster

Structural transformation of metal nanoclusters (NCs) is of great ongoing interest regarding their synthesis, stability, and reactivity. Although sporadic examples of cluster transformations have been reported, neither the underlying transformation mechanism nor the intermediates are unambiguous. Herein, we have synthesized a flexible 54-nuclei silver cluster (Ag54) by combining soft (tBuC≡C-) and hard (nPrCOO-) ligands. The existence of weakly coordinated nPrCOO- enhances the reactivity of Ag54, thus facilitating the dicarboxylic acid to induce structural transformation. X-ray structural analyses reveal that Ag54 transforms to Ag28 cluster-based 2D networks (Ag28a and Ag28b) induced by H2suc (succinic acid) and H2glu (glutaric acid), whereas with H2pda (2,2'-(1,2-phenylene)diacetic acid), a discrete Ag28 cluster (Ag28c) is isolated. The key intermediate Ag17 that emerges during the self-dissociation of Ag54 was isolated by using cryogenic recrystallization and characterized by X-ray crystallography. The "tandem transformation" mechanism for the structure evolution from Ag54 to Ag28a is established by time-dependent electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and UV-vis spectroscopy. In addition, the catalytic activity in the 4-nitrophenol reduction follows the sequence Ag28c > Ag28b > Ag28a > Ag54 due to more bare silver sites on the surface of the Ag28 cluster unit. Our findings not only open new avenues to the synthesis of silver NCs but also shed light on a better understanding of the structural transformation mechanism from one cluster to another or cluster-based metal-organic networks induced by dicarboxylates.

Silver ethynide clusters constructed with fluorinated β-diketonate ligands

Phosphonate can act as the intermediate connector to link two silver ethynide clusters functionalized by hfac ligands together to enlarge the silver cluster.

A silver-alkynyl cluster encapsulating a fluorescent polyoxometalate core: enhanced emission and fluorescence modulation

A fluorescent polyoxometalate-based silver(i)-alkynyl cluster exhibits sensitivity towards high energy UV irradiation and selectivity for detection of S²⁻.

Polyhedral C2@Agn cages distorted by ancillary pyridine N-oxide ligands in silver-acetylenediide complexes

Reactions of the pyridine N-oxide ligands L, L2 and L3 with the silver acetylenediide-containing system under hydrothermal conditions gave rise to four silver-acetylenediide complexes bearing interesting C2@Agn motifs: (Ag2C2)2(AgCF3CO2)8(L1)3.5 (1), (Ag2C2)2(AgCF3CO2)8(L2)2 (2), (Ag2C2)(AgCF3CO2)4(L3) (3) and [(Ag7(C2)(CF3SO3)3(L3)2(H2O)2] x 2CF3SO3 (4) (L = nicotinic acid N-oxide, L(1) = pyridine N-oxide, L2 = 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane N,N'-dioxide, L3 = 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane N,N'-dioxide), which exhibit new distorted polyhedral C2@Agn cage motifs. Complex 1 has a pair of acetylenediide dianions encapsulated in a Ag(14) aggregate composed of three polyhedral parts, whereas 2 contains an irregular (C2)2@Ag13 double cage. In 3, the basic building unit is a centrosymmetric (C2)2@Ag12 double cage with each component single cage taking the shape of a highly distorted triangulated dodecahedron with one missing vertex. As to complex 4, the core is a C2@Ag7 single cage in the form of a slightly distorted monocapped trigonal prism with four cleaved edges that include all three vertical sides. Furthermore, in the silver-rich environment, the pyO-type ligands are induced to exhibit unprecedented coordination modes, such as the mu(5)-O,O,O,O',O' ligation mode of L2 in 2 and the mu4-O,O,O',O' mode of L3 in 3 and 4.

Silver(I) 1,3-Butadiynediide and Two Related Silver(I) Double Salts Containing the C42- Dianion

Ag2C4, the second silver carbide to be fully characterized, has been synthesized as a light-gray powder (contaminated with metallic silver) that is explosive at high temperature (130 degrees C) and sensitive to mechanical shock, rather like the well-known prototype Ag2C2. In the pair of hydrated double salts Ag2C4.6AgNO3.nH2O (n = 2, 3), the nearly linear, centrosymmetric 1,3-butadiyne-1,4-diyl dianion C42-exhibits an unprecedented mu8-coordination mode, each terminal being capped by four sigma-bonded silver(I) atoms with pi-interaction to one of them.

Silver cages with encapsulated acetylenediide as building blocks for hydrothermal synthesis of supramolecular complexes with n-cyanopyridine and pyridine-n-carboxamide (n = 3, 4)

New silver(i) double salts (Ag(2)C(2))(AgCF(3)CO(2))(8)(3-pyCONH(2))(2)(H(2)O)(4) (1), [(Ag(2)C(2))(AgCF(3)CO(2))(4)(4-pyCONH(2))(H(2)O)].H(2)O (2), (Ag(2)C(2))(AgCF(3)CO(2))(6)(3-pyCONH(2))(4) (3), (Ag(2)C(2))(AgCF(3)CO(2))(6)(3-pyCN)(2) (4) and (Ag(2)C(2))(AgCF(3)CO(2))(4)(4-pyCN)(2) (5) (n-pyCONH(2) is pyridine-n-carboxamide, n-pyCN is n-cyanopyridine; n=3, 4) have been synthesized by the hydrothermal method. All five compounds contain polyhedral silver(i) cages each encapsulating a C(2)(2-) dianion. Compounds 1, 3 ,4 and 5 exhibit three-dimensional structures, whereas compound 2 is a two-dimensional network. The structure of 1 is constructed from the linkage of a branched-tree architecture via hydrogen bonds. Unlike 4 and 5, which involve the connection of n-cyanopyridine (n=3, 4) with silver columns, 3 results from the linkage of discrete silver cages via pyridine-3-carboxamide.