Clustering chemistry is a key point in the design of the secondary building units (SBUs) that comprise metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In this work, zirconium-carboxylate clustering processes in alcohol/water mixtures are studied using the monocarboxylic benzoic and hydroxybenzoic acids to avoid the polymerization. Mass-spectroscopy measurements revealed the presence of hexa- and pentanuclear species and evidenced the acid-base nature and pH dependence of the transformation between both species. The X-ray diffraction analysis of six new compounds showed that they are closely related to the [Zr6(O)4(OH)4(OOC)12] SBU found in many MOFs by removing carboxylic ligands in the case of the [Zr6(μ3-O)4(μ3-OH)4(μ-OOCR)8(H2O)8]4+ species or by additionally removing one of the metal centers for the [Zr5(μ3-O)2(μ3-OH)6(μ-OOCR)4(H2O)11(alcohol)]6+ entities. The unsaturated hexameric clusters exhibit different dispositions of their eight carboxylate ligands in such a way that the remaining four carboxylate-free positions are arranged according to a square planar or tetrahedral symmetry. The pentameric cluster implies an unprecedented core nuclearity in discrete zirconium species and thus its isolation provides a novel building block for the design of metal-organic materials. Last, but not least, it is claimed that these highly positively charged polynuclear clusters are potential building block to prepare a plethora of ionic compounds by combining them with different counterions, providing some successful examples.
Now we closed the publication phase and launched the post-publication phase of the conference. REVIEWWWERS'08 Brainstorming Workshop is Now Open from 2023-Jan-01 to 2023-Jan-31. MOL2NET Committee, Authors, and Validated Social Media Followers Worldwide are ... Invited to Post Moderated Questions/Answers, Comments, about papers. Please kindly post your public Answers (A) to the following questions in order to promote interchange of scientific ideas. These are my Questions (Q) to you:
Q1. Have you considered to creating a startup company related with this reaserch work with students of your college?
Q2. What type of chirality would these metal complexes present in case they had it?
Dear author thanks in advance for your kind support answering the questions. Now, please become a verified REVIEWWWER of our conference by making questions to other papers in different Mol2Net congresses. Commenting Steps: Login, Go to Papers List, Select Paper, Write Comment, Click Post Comment.
Papers list: https://mol2net-08.sciforum.net/presentations/view
Workshop link: https://mol2net-08.sciforum.net/#reviewwwers
Q1. Have you considered to creating a startup company related with this reaserch work with students of your college?
ANSWER: At this moment, we are developing this kind of hybrid materials in the search for the best performing specimens in terms of their adsorption/desorption capabilities of different drugs. Depending on the results, we will decide if it deserves creating a startup.
Q2. What type of chirality would these metal complexes present in case they had it?
The non-disordered heptameric entity is chiral but as the employed counterions are nonchiral one, the heptameric entities are incorporated in a racemic mixture (the source of the observed crystallographic disorder comes from this fact). In order to obtain a chiral compound a chiral organic counterion should be employed.
