Recent Advances in Lanthanide‐Containing Polyoxotungstates

Abstract

Abstract The area of lanthanide‐containing polyoxometalates has been a field of large interest for several years due to the interesting structural and physicochemical properties of such compounds. This chemistry is dominated by tungsten based POMs, as a large number of vacant (lacunary) polytungstate precursors is known (as opposed to vanadium or molybdenum based POMs). The main subclasses in this field are lanthanide‐containing iso ‐ and hetero ‐polytungstates. The number of examples in the latter class is significantly larger than the former, probably because more lacunary hetero ‐ than iso ‐polytungstates are known. Here we report on recent examples of lanthanide‐containing iso ‐ and hetero ‐polytungstates with a focus on synthetic and in particular structural aspects. The compounds discussed include discrete molecular species as well as 1‐, 2‐ and 3‐D solid‐state assemblies.