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Two new copper clusters, {Cu 4 } and {Cu 4 Cd 6 }, with polydentate aminoalcohol ligands, diethanol propanolamine (H 3 L 1 ) and bis-tris{2-[bis(2-hydroxyethyl)amino]-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol} (H 6 L 2 ), have been synthesized under mild conditions and characterized thoroughly by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, powder XRD, magnetic and DFT studies, and absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The cluster {Cu 4 } exhibits a rare tetranuclear copper cubane core whereas {Cu 4 Cd 6 } forms an unusual heterometallic cage owing to the introduction of the second metal Cd into the ligand. A hexapodal ligand (H 6 L 2 ) with N and O donor atoms was chosen deliberately for the construction of a high-nuclearity cluster, i.e., {Cu 4 Cd 6 }. Interestingly, both the clusters displayed significant cytotoxicity towards human cervical (HeLa) and lung (A549) cancer cells as evident from the shallow IC 50 values [15.6 ± 0.8 μM (HeLa), 18.5 ± 1.9 μM (A549) for {Cu 4 }, and 11.1 ± 1.5 μM (HeLa), 10.2 ± 1.3 μM (A549) for {Cu 4 Cd 6 }] obtained after a 24 h incubation. However, moderate toxicity was observed toward immortalized lung epithelial normal cells (HPL1D) with IC 50 values of 32.4 ± 1.2 μM for {Cu 4 } and 27.6 ± 1.7 μM for {Cu 4 Cd 6 }. A cellular apoptotic study using HeLa cells revealed that the {Cu 4 } cluster triggered apoptosis at both the early and late phases while the {Cu 4 Cd 6 } cluster facilitate apoptosis mainly at the late apoptotic stage. A standard 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein-diacetate (DCFH-DA) test affirms that both the clusters enhanced ROS production inside the cancer cells, responsible for promoting cell apoptosis. The decanuclear {Cu 4 Cd 6 } clusters demonstrated better anticancer activity compared to the tetranuclear {Cu 4 } clusters, indicating the role of high nuclearity and additional Cd metal in the enhanced intracellular production of ROS.

There is an increasing demand for monitoring environmental pollutants and the control requires new sensing materials with better sensitivity, selectivity and reliability. In this study, a series of Co 7 clusters incorporating various flexible polyhydroxyamine ligands are explored, with the first report of thiocyanate recognition triggered by crystal formation using a Co 7 crystal (1). For this, we have fortunately synthesized three new mixed metal Co 7 clusters with fascinating structural features. The clusters were characterized by spectroscopic and single crystal X-ray diffraction methods and later by DFT calculations. Due to its better emission spectrum, 1 was further utilized for evaluating its sensing ability towards various anions in water. Surprisingly, 1 shows better quenching ability towards the recognition of SCN - with a better binding constant. The luminescence quenching towards SCN - detection was further verified by the single crystal method, HSAB principle (symbiosis) and theoretical calculations such as DFT studies. The SCXRD data clearly suggest that the Co 7 (1) can be converted into Co 14 (1a) by direct reaction with NaSCN under ambient conditions. Besides the soft/hard acid-base concept (symbiosis), the energies of formation, and Co-NCS and Co-OH 2 bond energies (as unravelled by DFT) are responsible for this transformation. Therefore, 1 can be used as a selective and sensitive sensor for the detection of thiocyanate anions based on the fluorescence amplification and quenching method. Further, the designed cluster has also been utilized to detect anions in human blood samples to differentiate a smoker and a non-smoker. It has been concluded that the samples of smokers have a high degree of thiocyanate (∼12 or 9.5 mg L -1 ) in comparison to those of non-smokers (2-3 mg L -1 ). Thus, this kind of cluster material has high potentiality in the field of bio-medical science in future endeavours for identification of the extent of thiocyanate content in smokers., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In this report, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are designed and tuned for structural variations in order to induce metal capture which in turn directs dye adsorption properties. The three MOFs, Cu-MOF-2COOH, Ni-MOF-COOH and Cd-MOF, are synthesized by employing 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H3-BTC) as the main ligand and 4,4'-dipyridyl (bipy) as the spacer. The MOFs have been characterized using various spectral techniques and single crystal X-Ray studies. A topological analysis using TOPOS Pro reveals that the MOFs possess varying topologies i.e.hcb, hxl, sql and 2C1. Cu-MOF-2COOH and Ni-MOF-COOH contain two and three uncoordinated carboxylic acid groups, respectively, and in Cd-MOF, all three -COOH groups are utilized in bonding. The dye adsorption properties of the MOFs with free carboxylate group(s) were checked and we found that both MOFs are unable to adsorb any of the dyes significantly. The free carboxylate group(s) in the MOFs inspire us to elaborate their metal capturing properties. In different solvents we checked the metal capturing properties of Cu-MOF-2COOH and Ni-MOF-COOH with different metal salts. Surprisingly, both MOFs show better metal capturing properties towards the hard and highly polarizing Fe3+ ion in aqueous medium. Theoretical studies show that the free carboxylate(s) are involved in binding with metals. The post synthetically modified materials (Fe@Cu-MOF-2COOH and Fe@Ni-MOF-COOH) were further checked for their dye adsorption properties and both the doped MOFs show better adsorption properties towards the MB and MO. Furthermore, three kinetic models were employed to understand the reaction mechanism of adsorption and the pseudo second order kinetic model fits the best in both cases. The uncoordinated carboxylate groups in the channels act as post synthetic modification sites for metal capture and the post synthetically modified material thus formed attracts organic dyes following the HSAB concept. The strong interaction existing between the hard Fe3+ ion and hard donors of the dyes is responsible for the enhanced adsorption.

In this work, a series of three copper(II) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), [Cu(4,4'-DP)Cl] n ( 1 ), [Cu(4,4'-DP) 0.5 Cl] n ( 2 ), and [Cu(4,4'-TMDP)Cl] n ( 3 ) (4,4'-DP = 4,4'-dipyridyl, 4,4'-TMDP = 4,4'-trimethylenedipyridyl), is designed and synthesized under solvothermal conditions. Crystallographic investigations reveal that 1 and 2 have tetrahedral and 3 has octahedral environment around the Cu(II) ion. By varying the solvent conditions and ligand derivatives, the topology can be interestingly tuned. TOPOS Pro provides topological conclusions that 1 is stabilized by unusual 2D + 2D → 3D polycatenation of layers lying in (110) and (11̅0) planes with dihedral angle of 90° showing altogether fes , hcb , and sql topologies. On the other hand, 2 exhibits a bey (3,4-c net) topology and 3 shows 4-fold interpenetration with the dia topology. The dc measurements for 1 - 3 performed on polycrystalline samples in a 0.1 T field confirm strong ferromagnetic behaviors for 1 and 2 and moderate antiferromagnetic behavior for 3 . To examine the sensing properties of the three MOFs, various hazardous nitroaromatic compounds (NACs) were used as analytes. While 1 is a potent fluorescence sensor for highly sensitive detection of multiple NACs, 2 selectively detects meta -dinitrobenzene ( m -DNB) with K SV M 5 M -1 M. -7 M. 3 does not show sensing ability toward any NAC probably due to the coordination environment being different from those in 1 and 2 . The work demonstrates fine-tuning of the topology and in turn magnetic and sensing properties by changing the reaction conditions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest.