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Abstract
Metal–organic polyhedra—discrete molecular architectures constructed through the coordination of metal ions and organic linkers—have recently attracted considerable attention due to their intriguing structures, their potential for a variety of applications and their relevance to biological self-assembly. Several synthetic routes have been investigated to prepare these complexes. However, to date, these preparative methods have typically been based on the direct assembly of metal ions and organic linkers. Although these routes are convenient, it remains difficult to find suitable reaction conditions or to control the outcome of the assembly process. Here, we demonstrate a synthetic strategy based on the substitution of bridging ligands in soluble metal–organic polyhedra. The introduction of linkers with different properties from those of the initial metal–organic polyhedra can thus lead to new metal–organic polyhedra with distinct properties (including size and shape). Furthermore, partial substitution can also occur and form mixed-ligand species that may be difficult to access by means of other approaches. Discrete metal–organic polyhedra are usually prepared from metal ions and organic linkers by a direct self-assembly approach in solution. Now, using the polyhedra themselves as starting materials, it has been shown that a wider variety of structures can be obtained through the partial or complete substitution of their linkers. Cite this article
Li, JR., Zhou, HC. Bridging-ligand-substitution strategy for the preparation of metal–organic polyhedra. Nature Chem 2, 893–898 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.803 