Issue 39, 2019

Assembly of high-nuclearity Sn26, Sn34-oxo clusters: solvent strategies and inorganic Sn incorporation

Abstract

A series of unprecedented high-nuclearity tin-oxo nanoclusters (up to Sn34) with structural diversity have been obtained. The characteristics of the applied solvents had great influence on the assembly of these Sn–O clusters. Pure alcohol environments only gave rise to small clusters of Sn6, whilst the introduction of water significantly increased the nuclearity to Sn26, which greatly exceeds those of the known tin-oxo clusters (≤14); the use of aprotic CH3CN finally produced the largest Sn34 to date. Apart from the nuclearity breakthrough, the obtained tin-oxo clusters also present new structural types that are not found in previous reports, including a layered nanorod-like structure of Sn26 and the cage-dimer structure of Sn34. The layered Sn26 clusters represent good molecular models for SnO2 materials. Moreover, an electrode derived from TOC-17 with a {Sn26} core shows better electrocatalytic CO2 reduction activity than that from TOC-18 with Sn34. This work not only provides an efficient methodology for the rational assembly of high-nuclearity Sn–O clusters, but also extends their potential applications in energy conversion.

Graphical abstract: Assembly of high-nuclearity Sn26, Sn34-oxo clusters: solvent strategies and inorganic Sn incorporation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
22 5 2019
Accepted
12 8 2019
First published
12 8 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 9125-9129

Assembly of high-nuclearity Sn26, Sn34-oxo clusters: solvent strategies and inorganic Sn incorporation

Y. Zhu, L. Zhang and J. Zhang, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 9125 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC02503K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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