Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 16, 2025

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Multinuclear Ag Clusters Sandwiched by Pt Complex Units: Fluxional Behavior and Chiral-at-Cluster Photoluminescence
Shinnosuke Horiuchi1,2, Sangjoon Moon1, Akitaka Ito3
1Division of Chemistry and Materials Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagasaki University, 1-14, Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki, 852-8521, Japan.
Abstract:
Multinuclear Ag clusters sandwiched by Pt complex units were synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction and NMR studies. The sandwich-shaped multinuclear Ag complexes showed two different types of fluxional behavior in solution: rapid slippage of Pt complex units on the Ag3 core and a reversible demetalation-metalation reaction by the treatment with Cl anion and Ag ion, respectively. The Ag2 complex obtained by demetalation reaction from the Ag3 complex displayed U to Z isomerization. These multinuclear Ag complexes showed strong photoluminescence whose properties depended on the existence of Pt→Ag dative bonds. The Ag3 complex, identified to be "chiral-at-cluster", was optically resolved by the formation of a diastereomeric salt with a chiral anion. The enantiomers show circular dichroism (CD) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) properties which is unprecedented for compounds based on a chiral sandwich structure. Theoretical calculations allow to understand their structural features and photophysical properties.
Related Concept Videos
Valence Bond Theory
Crystal Field Theory - Octahedral Complexes
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
The Antenna Complex
Crystal Field Theory - Tetrahedral and Square Planar Complexes
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
Hybridization of Atomic Orbitals II
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...

