Photoreductive self-assembly from [Mo7O24]6- to carboxylates-coordinated {Mo142} Mo-blue nanoring in the presence of carboxylic acids.

The primary steps of the photoredox reaction between [Mo7O24]6- and carboxylic acid electron (and proton) donors in aqueous solutions are investigated by the chemically induced dynamic electron spin polarization (CIDEP) spectroscopy. The excitation of the O-->Mo ligand-to-metal charge-transfer (LMCT) bands of [Mo7O24]6- in the presence of CH3CO2H induces the emissive electron spin polarization (ESP) of *CH2CO2 and *CH3 radicals with an accompanying formation of the one-electron reduced species [Mo7O23(OH)]6-, which is demonstrated by the triplet mechanism involving the O --> Mo LMCT triplet states. The prolonged photolysis of the solution containing [Mo7O24]6- and CH3CO2H at pH = 3.4 leads to the formation of the acetate/propionate-coordinated {Mo142} Mo-blue nanoring, [MoV28MoV(I)114O429H10(H2O)(49)(CH3)CO2 triple bond Ac5(C2H5CO2 triple bond Pr)]30- (1a) through the formation of the cis-configured dimeric dehydrative condensation to two-electron reduced Mo-blue [(Mo7O23)2]10- ({Mo14}). 1a is isolated as a [NH4]+/[Me3NH]+-mixed salt which is formulated as [NH4]27[Me3NH]3[Mo(V)28Mo(VI)114O429H10(H2O)49(CH3CO2)5(C2H5CO2)].150 +/- 10H2O (1) by results of elementary analysis, single-crystal X-ray analysis, 1H NMR, IR, and UV/Vis measurements, and manganometric redox titration. Based on the building-block sequence of for 1a, the bottom-up processes from [Mo7O24]6- to the {Mo142} ring in the coexistence of beta-[Mo8O26]4- are discussed by (i) the stabilization of the molecular curvature of {Mo14} through both the intramolecular transfer of monomolybdates and the intermolecular transfer of monomolybdates as degradation fragments of beta-[Mo8O26]4-, to yield {Mo21} and {Mo20} building blocks, (ii) the outer-ring formation resulting from seven successive two-electron-photoreductive condensations among {Mo21} and {Mo20}, and (iii) inner-ring formation resulting from eight successive dehydrative condensations between monomolybdate linkers attached to the neighboring head Mo sites.