Recent Advances in Lanthanide-Containing Polyoxotungstates

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.