Hydrolysis of dibenzyltin dichloride in ethanol has been found to give an unprecedented carbonate anion (CO3 2-)-bridged double-ladder organo oxotin cluster, [(R2SnO)3(R2SnOH)2- (CO3)]2 (1,R = C6H5CH2), with five tin atoms in each ladder. With the aim of obtaining organooxotin clusters with large cavities suitable for host-guest chemistry, we used 1,1’-ferrocenedicar- boxylic acid (H2La) and hexanedioic acid (H2Lb) to replace the carbonate anions (CO3 2-), and thereby clusters [(R2SnO)3(R2SnOH)2La]2 (2) and [(R2SnO)3(R2SnOH)2Lb]2 (3) were ob tained. When 1 was treated with benzo ic acid (HLc) in different stoichiometric ratios (1:4, 1:10), ladder cluster (R2SnO)3(R2SnOH)2(Lc)2 (4) and drum cluster [RSn(O)Lc]6 (5) were obtained. Through the hydrolysis of Cy2SnCl2 (Cy = C6H11) and (C6H5CH2)2SnCl2, two interesting ethanolate-modified clusters [Cy2(C2H5O)SnOSn(C2H5O) Cy2]2 (6) and [(R2SnO)3 (R2SnOH) (R2SnOC2H5)(CO3)]2 (7) were ob tained. All the tin atoms in these ladder clusters are five-coordinate surrounded by two alkyl groups and three O atoms, and have distorted trigonal bipyramidal coordination environments with two carbon atoms and one O atom in the equatorial positions and two O atoms in the axial positions. The structures of all these compounds have been established by single-crystal X- ray diffraction analyses.

By surfactant-assisted methods, nanoscale Co(O3PC6H5) •H2O species of different morphologies, namely, nanoparticles and nanorods, have been successfully synthesized and characterized. Upon removal of the organic part of the compound, peculiar Co2P2O7 porous nanorods formed.

This article represents a systematical examination of the structures of silver(I) sulfonates incorporating neutral ligands. To survey the influence of the properties of neutral ligands on the structures of silver(I) sulfonates, three kinds of sulfonate anions (L1= 1-naphthalenesulfonate, L2 =p-toluenesulfonate,and L3 = 1, 3, 6, 8-pyrenetetrasulfonate) and three kinds of neutral ligands (pyrazine, Pyr, a divergent bidentate ligand; hexamethylenetetramine, hmt, a divergent tetradentate ligand; and β-picoline, Pic, a monodentate ligand) were selected for study, and five novel silver (I) sulfonates containing neutral ligands have been synthesized: [Ag(L1)- (Pyr)] •H2O(1), Ag(L2)(Pyr) (2), Ag4 (L3) (Pyr)4 (H2O)2 (3), [Ag(L1)(hmt)] •H2O(4), and Ag(L1)(Pic)2 (5). The crystal structures have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction,and these compounds show a variety of structures with different dimensionalities. Moreover, the luminescent properties of compounds 2, 4, and 5 are also discussed.

The reactions of sodium nitroprusside [Na2Fe(CN)5NO • 2H2O] with organotin have been studied. Six new organotin-cyanometalate compounds, [Ph3Sn]2[Fe(CN)5NO] (1), [Bz3Sn]2[Fe(CN)5NO](Bz=C6H5- CH2-) ( 2), [Bz2Sn] [Fe(CN)5NO] (3), [(Bz3Sn)2CN]2 [Fe(CN)5NO] (4), [Bz2SnOSn(MeO)Bz2]2 [Fe(CN)5-NO] • 3CH2Cl2 (5), and [Bz2SnOSn(EtO)Bz2]2 [Fe(CN)5NO] • 3CH2Cl2 (6), have been isolated in these reactions and characterized by the X-ray diffraction method. Each of compounds 1,2,3,and 4shows a 2D polymeric structure containing planar four-connected [Fe(CN)5NO]2- anions. Compound 4 is the first organotin-cyanometalatecompound containing a superlong-CN-R3Sn-CN-SnR3-NC-spacer. Compounds 5 and 6 are the first examples of organotin-cyanometalate compounds of organooxotin clusters, in which the organooxotin clusters are bridged by cyanometalate anions to generate a novel 1D polymeric chain structure.