Construction of low-symmetrical charge-neutral Sn12-oxo football cage with the functionalized ligand

Abstract

Tin-oxo clusters, as molecular model compounds of tin oxide materials, have attracted increasing attention. Although various tin-oxo clusters have been obtained, the systemic studies on ligand functionalization of tin-oxo clusters remain to be well developed. In this study, we adopted 3-aminopyrazine-2-carboxylic acid (HAPZC) as the functionalized ligand, and successfully synthesized a novel tin-oxo cluster [(n-BuSn)12(OH)6O14 (APZC)2]·2H2O (CTGU-SnC-3). Due to the functionalization of the APZC ligands, the structure and charge of Sn12 cage in CTGU-SnC-3 are all different from those of reported cationic football cage. This Sn12 cage in CTGU-SnC-3 presents the interesting low-symmetrical football framework with the functionalized ligands. Different from the reported cationic football cages, the CTGU-SnC-3 is charge-neutral structure without any counteranions. Moreover, the CTGU-SnC-3 exhibits hydrophobic behavior and catalytic activity in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction.