Ligand bridging-angle-driven assembly of molecular architectures based on quadruply bonded Mo-Mo dimers

A systematic exploration of the assembly of Mo2(O2C-)4-based metal-organic molecular architectures structurally controlled by the bridging angles of rigid organic linkers has been performed. Twelve bridging dicarboxylate ligands were designed to be of different sizes with bridging angles of 0, 60, 90, and 120° while incorporating a variety of nonbridging functional groups, and these ligands were used as linkers. These dicarboxylate linkers assemble with quadruply bonded Mo-Mo clusters acting as nodes to give 13 molecular architectures, termed metal-organic polygons/polyhedra with metal cluster node arrangements of a linear shape, triangle, octahedron, and cuboctahedron/anti-cuboctahedron. The syntheses of these complexes have been optimized and their structures determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The results have shown that the shape and size of the resulting molecular architecture can be controlled by tuning the bridging angle and size of the linker, respectively. Functionalization of the linker can adjust the solubility of the ensuing molecular assembly but has little or no effect on the geometry of the product. Preliminary gas adsorption, spectroscopic, and electrochemical properties of selected members were also studied. The present work is trying to enrich metal-containing supramolecular chemistry through the inclusion of well-characterized quadruply bonded Mo-Mo units into the structures, which can widen the prospect of additional electronic functionality, thereby leading to novel properties.