TY - JOUR AU - O’Connor, Helen M. AU - Scott, Aaron J. AU - Pitak, Mateusz B. AU - Klooster, Wim T. AU - Coles, Simon J. AU - Chilton, Nicholas F. AU - McInnes, Eric J. L. AU - Lusby, Paul J. AU - Weihe, Høgni AU - Piligkos, Stergios AU - Brechin, Euan K. AU - Calvo, Sergio TI - [CrIII8NiII6]n+ Heterometallic Coordination Cubes JO - Molecules VL - 26 IS - 3 SN - 1420-3049 CY - Basel PB - MDPI M1 - FZJ-2021-04409 SP - 757 - PY - 2021 AB - Three new heterometallic [CrIII8NiII6] coordination cubes of formulae [CrIII8NiII6L24(H2O)12](NO3)12 (1), [CrIII8NiII6L24(MeCN)7(H2O)5](ClO4)12 (2), and [CrIII8NiII6L24Cl12] (3) (where HL = 1-(4-pyridyl)butane-1,3-dione), were synthesised using the paramagnetic metalloligand [CrIIIL3] and the corresponding NiII salt. The magnetic skeleton of each capsule describes a face-centred cube in which the eight CrIII and six NiII ions occupy the eight vertices and six faces of the structure, respectively. Direct current magnetic susceptibility measurements on (1) reveal weak ferromagnetic interactions between the CrIII and NiII ions, with JCr-Ni = + 0.045 cm−1. EPR spectra are consistent with weak exchange, being dominated by the zero-field splitting of the CrIII ions. Excluding wheel-like structures, examples of large heterometallic clusters containing both CrIII and NiII ions are rather rare, and we demonstrate that the use of metalloligands with predictable bonding modes allows for a modular approach to building families of related polymetallic complexes. Compounds (1)–(3) join the previously published, structurally related family of [MIII8MII6] cubes, where MIII = Cr, Fe and MII = Cu, Co, Mn, Pd LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - 33540541 UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000615458800001 DO - DOI:10.3390/molecules26030757 UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/902614 ER -