Single-source materials for metal-doped titanium oxide: syntheses, structures, and properties of a series of heterometallic transition-metal titanium oxo cages.

Titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) doped with transition-metal ions (M) has potentially broad applications in photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and photosensors. One approach to these materials is through controlled hydrolysis of well-defined transition-metal titanium oxo cage compounds. However, to date very few such cages have been unequivocally characterized, a situation which we have sought to address here with the development of a simple synthetic approach which allows the incorporation of a range of metal ions into titanium oxo cage arrangements. The solvothermal reactions of Ti(OEt)(4) with transition-metal dichlorides (M(II)Cl(2), M = Co, Zn, Fe, Cu) give the heterometallic transition-metal titanium oxo cages [Ti(4)O(OEt)(15)(MCl)] [M = Co (2), Zn (3), Fe (4), Cu (5)], having similar MTi(4)(μ(4)-O) structural arrangements involving ion pairing of Ti(4)O(OEt)(15) anion units with MCl(+) fragments. In the case of the reaction of MnCl(2), however, two Mn(II) ions are incorporated into this framework, giving the hexanuclear Mn(2)Ti(4)(μ(4)-O) cage [Ti(4)O(OEt)(15)(Mn(2)Cl(3))] (6) in which the MCl(+) fragments in 2-5 are replaced by a ClMn(μ-Cl)MnCl unit. Emphasizing that the nature of the heterometallic cage is dependent on the metal ion (M) present, the reaction of Ti(OEt)(4) with NiCl(2) gives Ti(2)(OEt)(9)(NiCl) (7), which has a dimeric Ni(μ-Cl)(2)Ni bridged arrangement arising from the association of Ti(2)(OEt)(9) ions with NiCl(+) units. The syntheses, solid-state structures, spectroscopic and magnetic properties of 2-7 are presented, a first step toward their applications as precursor materials.