Transition metal aggregates

The use of carboxylates as co-ligands has been one of the most successful strategies in the production high-nuclearity transition metal aggregates [39, 127]. The method has been extended to the use of polycarboxylates such... 

Inspired by the many hydrolytically-active metallo enzymes encountered in nature, extensive studies have been performed on so-called metallo micelles. These investigations usually focus on mixed micelles of a common surfactant together with a special chelating surfactant that exhibits a high affinity for transition-metal ions. These aggregates can have remarkable catalytic effects on the hydrolysis of activated carboxylic acid esters, phosphate esters and amides. In these reactions the exact role of the metal ion is not clear and may vary from one system to another. However, there are strong indications that the major function of the metal ion is the coordination of hydroxide anion in the Stem region of the micelle where it is in the proximity of the micelle-bound substrate. The first report of catalysis of a hydrolysis reaction by me tall omi cell es stems from 1978. In the years that... 

There are only a few weU-documented examples of catalysis by metal clusters, and not many are to be expected as most metal clusters are fragile and fragment to give metal complexes or aggregate to give metal under reaction conditions (39). However, the metal carbonyl clusters are conceptually important because they form a bridge between catalysts commonly used in solution, ie, transition-metal complexes with single metal atoms, and catalysts commonly used on surfaces, ie, small metal particles or clusters. 

This supramolecular approach has been used as a way to facilitate the crystallization of cuboidal aqua ions and to capture single intermediates present in complex solution mixtures. For example, [M3Q4Clx(H20)9.x] (Q = S, Se) supramolecular adducts have been isolated for x =1-5 from aqueous HCl solutions by varying the acid concentrations where the aggregates contain in each case only one of all possible isomers [46]. In addition to the hydrogen bonds, other kinds of interactions, namely C1---H20, C1---C1 and Q---Q contacts, are also involved in the network propagation. This supramolecular approach has also been efficiently employed for the crystallization of a large number of aqua complexes within the [M3M Q4] cubane-type family, where M is a transition or post-transition metal [47]. 

Finke has reported remarkable catalytic lifetimes for the polyoxoanion- and tetrabutylammonium-stabi-lized transition metal nanoclusters [288-292]. For example in the catalytic hydrogenation of cyclohexene, a common test for structure insensitive reactions, the lr(0) nanocluster [296] showed up to 18,000 total turnovers with turnover frequencies of 3200 h [293]. As many as 190,000 turnovers were reported in the case of the Rh(0) analogue reported recently. Obviously, the polyoxoanion component prevents the precious metal nanoparticles from aggregating so that the active metals exhibit a high surface area [297]. 

Among various superconductors, compounds with the A15 (Cr3Si) crystal structure have the highest critical temperatures. This crystal structure has a simple relationship with the Ll2 structure (Ito and Fujiwara, 1994) as illustrated in Figure 8.9. When the unit cells are aggregated, the face-centered pairs of atoms form uniform chains of transition metal atoms along three orthogonal directions. This feature may be related to the relatively stable superconductivity in compounds with this structure. 

The small atoms at the center of the first row of the Periodic Table (B, C, N, O, and to a lesser extent Al, Si, and P) can fit into the interstices of aggregates of larger transition metal atoms to form boride, carbide, and nitride compounds. These compounds are both hard and moderately good electronic conductors. Therefore, they are commonly known as hard metals (Schwarzkopf and Kieffer, 1953). 

Related to these dimetallic systems, though not involving transition metals, are the boratastilbene complexes such as a " [ H 5 C 5 B-CH =CH-CH 4 -C H =C H P h ]" (isoelectronic with distyrylbenzene chromophores) that show aggregation-dependent photophysics. In nonpolar solvents, they form tightly bound ion pairs that are poorly luminescent, but in polar solvents, or when the counter ions are encapsulated in crown ethers, strong emission is observed as a result of intramolecular charge transfer.130... 

Transition Metal Catalysts Solubilized In Micellar Aggregates... 

The first application of NMR diffusion measurements to determine the aggregation state of a transition metal catalyst concerned the chiral, tetranuclear Cu(i) catalysts 130-132, used in the conjugate addition reactions of anions to a,p-unsatu-rated cyclic ketones. Compounds 130-132 react wdth isonitriles to form 133-135, and do not degrade to lower molecular weight species (see Eq. (20)) [109]. 

The structural information we have of pentafluorides in the solid state is relatively new. The similar melting points (near 100° C and below) and even more so the almost identical boiling points (close to 230°) of the transition metal fluorides MeFs point to similar structures of these compounds. Their high volatility is clearly less than that of the hexafluorides so that one may assume associated aggregates or polymere molecules in the solid state. New structure analyses showed this assumption to be true. There exist at least three structure types within the 12 pentafluorides of d-transition elements hitherto known. Two crystal... 

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