Different anion (NO₃^- and OAc^-)-controlled construction of dysprosium clusters with different shapes

The complex hydrolysis process and strong uncertainty of self-assembly rules have led to the precise synthesis of lanthanide clusters still being in the "blind-box" stage and simplifying the self-assembly process and developing reliable regulation strategies have attracted widespread attention. Herein, different anions are used to induce the construction of a series of dysprosium clusters with different shapes and connections. When the selected anion is NO₃^-, it blocks the coordination of metal sites around the cluster through the terminal group coordination mode, thereby controlling the growth of the cluster. When NO₃^- was changed to OAc^-, OAc^- adopted a bridging mode to induce modular units to build dysprosium clusters through an annular growth mechanism. Specifically, we selected 2-amino-6-methoxybenzoic acid, 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and Dy(NO₃)₃·6H₂O to react under solvothermal conditions to obtain a pentanuclear dysprosium cluster (1). The five Dy(III) ions in 1 are distributed in upper and lower planes and are formed by the tight connection of nitrogen and oxygen atoms, and μ₃-OH^- bridges on the ligand. Next, octa-nuclear dysprosium cluster (2) were obtained by only regulating ligand substituents. The eight Dy(III) ions in 2 are tightly connected through ligand oxygen atoms, μ₂-OH^-, and μ₃-OH^- bridges, forming an elliptical {Dy/O} cluster core. Furthermore, only by changing NO₃^- to OAc^-, a wheel-shaped tetradeca-nuclear dysprosium cluster (3) was obtained. Cluster 3 is composed of OAc^- bridged multiple template Dy₃L³ units and pulling of these template units connected by an annular growth mechanism forms a wheel-shaped cluster. The angle of the coordination site on NO₃^- is ∠ONO = 115°, which leads to the further extension of the metal sites on the periphery of clusters 1 and 2 through the terminal group coordination mode, thereby regulating the structural connection of the clusters. However, the angle of the coordination site on OAc^- is ∠OCO = 128°, and a slightly increased angle leads to the formation of a ring-shaped cluster 3 by connecting the template units through bridging. This is a rare example of the controllable construction of lanthanide clusters with different shapes induced by the regulation of different anions, which provides a new method for the precise construction of lanthanide clusters with special shapes.