Monoorganotin Oxo-Clusters : Versatile Nanobuilding Blocks for Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Materials

Abstract

Abstract The combination at the nanosize level of inorganic and organic components in a single material makes accessible an immense new area of materials science. Among other soft chemistry processes, sol-gel chemistry offers a versatile access to chemically designed new hybrid organic-inorganic materials. Yet, it might be inappropriate to prepare “model” hybrid materials, in which the structure of the organic and inorganic domains, together with those of their interface, are perfectly defined. Such systems, required to understand, optimize, and control the structure-properties relationship, can be alternatively prepared by assembling well-defined preformed inorganic nanobuilding blocks. The molecular structures and syntheses of two types of organotin oxo-clusters, {(RSn)12O14(OH)6}2+(X−)2 (“Tin-12”) and {RSnO(O2CR′)}6 (“Tin-6”) are presented. Various strategies to assemble them are discussed to illustrate the versatility of such nanobuilding blocks in the synthesis of hybrid systems with iono-covalent or ionic organic/inorganic interfaces. Keywords:: monoorganotin oxo-clustershybrid organic-inorganic materials 119Sn NMR{(RSn)12O14(OH)6}2+ {RSnO(O2CR′)}6