Recent Advances in the Chemistry of Clusters and Inorganic Polymers of Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal Compounds

Abstract

This contribution gives an overview on the different subjects treated in our group during the last four years. First, the concept of cutting out structural fragments from a solid-state structure will be explained on behalf of BaI2. Oxygen donor ligands, used as chemical scissors on BaI2, enabled three-, two-, one- and zero-dimensional derived compounds to be obtained depending on their size and concentration. Thus, a structural genealogy tree for BaI2 can be established. A second section 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 problem of structure prediction in crystal engineering. A third part describes a new synthetic pathway for generating homometallic alkaline earth metal clusters as well as group 1 and 2 mixed metal clusters as potential precursors for oxide materials. Finally, some physical properties of these compounds are described qualitatively in order to show the wide spectrum of possibilities and potential applications for the chemistry in this field.