Cluster Compounds

Recent advances in the synthetic chemistry and synthesis strategies for inorganic clusters, including oxo clusters, metal chalcogenide clusters, metal sulfur clusters, and transition metal (TM) carbonyl clusters, are introduced. Special attention has been given to oxo clusters containing TMs, lanthanides (Ln), and main group elements due to their critical role played in cluster-organic frameworks, such as structure-directing of the lacunary sites of polyoxometalate (POM) units, the synergistic directing between two or more lacunary fragments, and corporative role for the structure-directing and the decomposition of lacunary POM fragment. In addition, the ligand inducement, synergistic coordination between two types of ligands, and combination of self-polymerization and ligands inducement have been utilized to make high-nuclearity Ln cluster organic frameworks, LnTM-cluster-organic frameworks, and Ln-organogermanate cluster frameworks, respectively. Further, chiral transfer from the guest to the host and the synergistic strategy between the chiral groups and the acentric borate clusters are applied to make nonlinear optical materials.