Mineralomimetic chemistry as a modern aspect of co-ordination chemistry

Abstract

By denoting as mineralomimetic chemistry the chemistry of the build-up of mineral-like structures using materials that never give stable minerals in nature, the multidimensional structures comprised of the linkage of co-ordination polyhedra such as those observed for natural minerals are demonstrated for the products obtained by the crystal engineering strategy based on the structural similarity between Cd(CN)₂ and SiO₂, and between Cd(CN)₄ and SiO₄. The structures of high-cristobalite, low-cristobalite, high-tridymite, stishovite, pyrosilicate, chain silicates, ring silicates, layer silicates, framework silicates, etc. have been mimicked by polymeric complexes of cadmium cyanide and polycyanopolycadmate(II); [H₃(H₂O)₁₄][Cd{Cu₂(CN)₇}] has a doubly interpenetrating structure of the pyrite-mimetic [Cd{Cu₂(CN)₇}] framework and the framework of the hydrogen-bonded water molecules has a topology approximated to that of rutile; a two-dimensional ice structure (comparable with the two-dimensional array of the water molecules in ice I_h) is built from aqua ligands and the intercalated waters in [Cd(H₂O)₂Ni(CN)₄]·4H₂O. As a modern aspect of co-ordination chemistry, the concept of mineralomimetic chemistry is extended more generally for the multidimensional structures built from the linkage of co-ordination polyhedra.