Monolacunary Keggin polyoxometalates connected to ten 4d or 4f metal atoms.

The rational self-assembly of mono-lacunary Keggin clusters with 4d and 4f metal salts via a conventional method has yielded two novel polyoxometalate-based 4d-4f heterometallic compounds containing lacunary Keggin anions connected to ten metal atoms: {[Ag{Ag2(H2O)4}{Ln(H2O)6}2H ⊂ {SiW11Ln(H2O)4O39}2]·nH2O (Ln = Ce and n = 7 for 1, Ln = Pr and n = 3 for 2). Their structures were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses and further characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra, and thermogravimetric (TG) analyses. A structural feature in 1 and 2 is that each SiW11O39 cluster (SiW11) is connected to ten metals (five Ag(+) and five Ln(3+) cations), representing the highest number of connected metal atoms to any mono-lacunary Keggin anion to date. This large connectivity leads to a structure with a purely inorganic 3D framework with two kinds of channels along the [100] and [010] directions. The magnetic properties of both compounds show the expected magnetic moments (0.8 and 1.6 amu K mol(-1) per Ce(3+) and Pr(3+) ion, respectively) and confirm the presence of isolated Ce(3+) and Pr(3+) ions.