From cubane-assembled Mn-oxo clusters to monodispersed manganese oxide colloidal nanocrystals.

The assemblies of [MO] (M = metal) cubanes represent a fascinating class of materials for a variety of application fields. Although such a structural characteristic is relatively common in small molecules and in extended bulk solids, high nuclearity clusters composed of multiple [MO] units as their backbones are rare. In this work, we report two new Mn-oxo clusters, Mn Mn O(OOCMe)(OMe)(py) ([Mn-Ac]) and Mn Mn O(OOCCMe)(OMe)(MeOH)(py) ([Mn-Piv]), whose core structures are assemblies of either 6- or 7-cubanes in different packing patterns, which have been unambiguously revealed by single crystal X-ray diffraction technique.