Synthesis and Properties of Cobalt/Nickel-Iron-Antimony(III, V)-Oxo Tartrate Cluster-Based Compounds

Two types of isostructural iron-cobalt/nickel-antimony-oxo tartrate cluster-based compounds, namely (H O)(Me NH )[ (H O) ] [Fe Sb ( -O) ( -O) (tta) ]·6H O ( = Co ( ); Ni ( )), H [Co Fe Fe (H O) Sb Fe ( -O) ( -O) Sb ( -O) (tta) ]·2H O ( ) and H [Ni Fe Fe (H O) Sb Fe ( -O) ( -O) Sb ( -O) (tta) ]·2H O ( ) (H tta = tartaric acid) were synthesized via simple solvothermal reactions. All the clusters in the structures adopt sandwich configurations, that is, bilayer sandwich configuration in and and monolayer sandwich configuration in and . Interestingly, the monolayer sandwiched compounds and represent rare examples of cluster-based compounds containing mixed-valence Sb(III, V), whose center of the intermediate layer is the co-occupied [Fe Sb ]. This is different from that of previously reported sandwich-type antimony-oxo clusters in which the center position is either occupied by a transition metal ion or a Sb(V) alone. Thus, the discovery of title compounds and makes the evolution of center metal ion more complete, that is, from , Sb to Sb . All the title compounds were fully characterized, and the photocatalysis, proton conduction and magnetism of compounds and were studied.