A New Nanometer-Sized Ga(III)-Oxyhydroxide Cation

A new 30-center Ga(III)-oxy-hydroxide cation cluster was synthesized by hydrolysis of an aqueous GaCl3 solution near pH = 2.5 and crystallized using 2,6-napthalene disulfonate (NDS). The cluster has 30 metal centers and a nominal stoichiometry: [Ga30(μ4-O)12(μ3-O)4(μ3-OH)4(μ2-OH)42(H2O)16](2,6-NDS)6, where 2,6-NDS = 2,6-napthalene disulfonate This cluster augments the very small library of Group 13 clusters that have been isolated from aqueous solution and closely resembles one other Ga(III) cluster with 32 metal centers that had been isolated using curcurbit ligands. These clusters have uncommon linked Ga(O)4 centers and sets of both protonated and unprotonated μ3-oxo.