Assembly of a Highly Stable Luminescent Zn5 Cluster and Application to Bio-Imaging.

The assembly sequence of the coordination cluster [Zn5 (H2 L(n) )6 ](NO3 )4 ]⋅8 H2 O⋅2 CH3 OH (Zn5 , H3 L(n) =(1,2-bis(benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-ethenol) involves in situ dehydration of 1,2-bis(benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-1,2-ethanediol (H4 L) through the formation of the [Zn(H3 L)2 ](+) monomer, dimerization to [Zn2 (H3 L)2 ](+) , dehydration of the ligand to [Zn2 (H2 L(n) )2 ](+) , and the final formation of the pentanuclear cluster. The cluster has the following special characteristics: 1) high stability in both refluxing 37 % HCl and 27 % NH3 , 2) low cytotoxicity, and 3) pH-sensitive fluorescence in the visible-to-near-infrared (Vis/NIR) region in the solid state and in solution. We have applied it as a fluorescent probe both in vivo and in vitro.

Microwave versus traditional solvothermal synthesis of Ni7(II) discs: effect of ligand on exchange reaction in solution studied by electrospray ionization-mass spectroscopy and magnetic properties.

A comparative evaluation of the solvothermal method of synthesis of magnetic Ni(7) discs with four different ligands using the same concentrations of reagents and temperature found microwave heating is more effective than the traditional oven one. Where the former only needs minutes, the latter needs days with an equivalence of 10 min microwave to 1 day of traditional. The size of crystals has a narrow distribution and increases with time for the microwave but is a rather wide distribution for the traditional one.