Chemistry of polynuclear transition-metal complexes in ionic liquids.

Transition-metal chemistry in ionic liquids (IL) has achieved intrinsic fascination in the last few years. The use of an IL as environmental friendly solvent, offers many advantages over traditional materials synthesis methods. The change from molecular to ionic reaction media leads to new types of materials being accessible. Room-temperature IL have been found to be excellent media for stabilising transition-metal clusters in solution and to crystallise homo- and heteronuclear transition-metal complexes and clusters. Furthermore, the use of IL as solvent provides the option to replace high-temperature routes, such as crystallisation from the melt or gas-phase deposition, by convenient room- or low-temperature syntheses. Inorganic IL composed of alkali metal cations and polynuclear transition-metal cluster anions are also known. Each of these areas will be discussed briefly in this contribution.