Molecular Metal Clusters: Fundamental and Applied Aspects

Dear Colleagues,

The central and most interesting problem of modern inorganic chemistry is the reactivity of coordination compounds, especially in connection with such practically important tasks as the transformation of organic compounds into products that are useful and valuable to humans, activation of inert molecules, and study of photochemical processes (sunlight harvesting, generation of singlet oxygen, hydrogen production, photocatalysis etc). New practical needs combined with new capabilities for synthesis and characterization of coordination compounds put on the agenda the task of expanding the material basis of coordination chemistry, namely, synthesis and study of new and non-trivial classes of coordination compounds, in particular, cluster compounds having polymetallic cores with direct metal-metal interactions. In this case, we can expect to obtain compounds with a new, unexpected set of chemical and physical properties.

This Special Issue is devoted to various aspects of the chemistry of discrete molecular transition metal clusters, whose properties and applications very often differ from more familiar mononuclear compounds. Two main classes of clusters can be distinguished. They are low-valent or organometallic clusters, and high-valent or inorganic clusters (mainly chalcogenide and halide-bridged), which are characterized by great structural diversity and a plethora of potentially useful physico-chemical properties. These features are often combined with the stability of the cluster core (in ligand exchange processes and redox reactions) and the relatively simple modification of the ligand environment. Both types of clusters are considered as model objects for heterogeneous catalysts on metal surfaces (organometallic clusters) and metal chalcogenides (chalcogenide metal clusters). In addition, molecular clusters themselves are effective catalysts and can catalyze quite a few reactions better than momonuclear catalysts. In other words, molecular clusters are an intermediate link between mononuclear complexes and heterogeneous catalysts, and also represent a bridge between molecular and solid state chemistry. Their study opens up new prospects in material science, catalysis, and fundamental chemistry.

Dr. Artem L. Gushchin
Prof. Dr. Maxim N. Sokolov
Guest Editors

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