Lanthanide-containing molecular and supramolecular polymetallic functional assemblies.

As a result of the different degrees of stabilization experienced by the 4f, 5d, and 6s orbitals occurring upon ionization of the neutral metal, the lanthanides (La-Lu, Z ) 57-71) exist almost exclusively in their trivalent state Ln(III) ([Xe]4fn, n ) 0-14) in coordination complexes or supramolecular assemblies.1 Except for some arene compounds involving bulky substituted benzenes or cyclo-octatetraenes,2 covalence plays a minor role in Ln-ligand dative bonds and the nature of the coordination sphere is controlled by a subtle interplay between electrostatic interactions and interligand steric constraints.3 Variable coordination numbers (6 e CN e 12) and geometries are thus observed in lanthanide complexes, leading to limited success in the design of molecular architectures with predetermined structures.3,4 Although rigid or semirigid receptors may help to control the coordination sphere according to the lock-and-key and induced fit concepts,5 detailed studies of lanthanide solvates with water or acetonitrile suggest that trivalent lanthanides display a tendency to adopt nine-coordinate tricapped trigonal prismatic (TTP) arrangements around the metal ion in the solid state. In solution, the picture is a little more subtle:6 in water, for instance, large Ln(III) ions at the beginning of the series (Ln ) La-Nd) adopt TTP geometries, which are gradually transformed into eight-coordinate square antiprismatic (SAP) arrangements for small Ln(III) ions (Ln ) Tb-Lu), equilibria between CN ) 8 and CN ) 9 being observed for Ln ) Nd-Tb.7 The systematic contraction of the ionic radii observed when going from Ln ) La to Lu (often referred to as the lanthanide contraction)8 explains this trend and increases electrostatic bonding for heavier lanthanides, but this variation is so smooth and limited (15% contraction between La and Lu and ≈1% between two successive lanthanides) that selective recognition and incorporation into organized supramolecular architectures remains challenging.5 A rational access to extended polymetallic lanthanide-containing assemblies with predictable and controlled geometries is consequently very limited, and pioneer work in this field has focused on poorly characterized intricate mixtures of complexes in solution which are ‘transformed’ into well-defined solid-state clusters or networks through crystallization processes involving a rich palette of † Institute of Molecular and Biological Chemistry, Lausanne. E-mail: [email protected]. ‡ Department of Inorganic, Analytical and Applied Chemistry, Geneva. E-mail: [email protected].