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Atomically precise low‐nuclearity (n<10) silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) have garnered significant interest due to their size‐dependent optical properties and diverse applications. However, their synthesis has remained challenging, primarily due to their inherent instability. The present study introduces a new feasible approach for clustering silver ions utilizing highly negative and redox‐inert polyoxoniobates (PONbs) as all‐inorganic ligands. This strategy not only enables the creation of novel Ag‐PONb composite nanoclusters but also facilitates the synthesis of stable low‐nuclearity AgNCs. Using this method, we have successfully synthesized a small octanuclear rhombic [Ag8]6+ AgNC stabilized by six highly negative [LiNb27O75]14− polyoxoanions. This marks the first PONb‐protected superatomic AgNC, designated as {Ag8@(LiNb27O75)6} (Ag8@Nb162), with an aesthetically spherical core–shell structure. The crystalline Ag8@Nb162 is stable under ambient conditions, What's more, it is water‐soluble and able to maintain its molecular cluster structure intact in water. Further, the stable small [Ag8]6+ AgNC has interesting temperature‐ and pH‐dependent reversible fluorescence response, based on which a multiple optical encryption mode for anti‐counterfeit technology was demonstrated. This work offers a promising avenue for the synthesis of fascinating and stable PONb‐protected AgNCs and sheds light on the development of new‐type optical functional materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the metal‐oxo cluster structural feature and charge separation behaviour of the oxygen evolving center (OEC) in photosystem II (PS‐II) under photoirradiation, a new crystalline photochromic polyoxomolybdate, MV2[β‐Mo8O26] (1, MV=methyl viologen cation), is designed as a biomimetic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst in neutral electrolytes. After photoinduced electron transfer (PIET) with colour change from colourless to grey, it remains in an ultra‐stable charge‐separated state over a year under ambient conditions. The observed overpotential at 10 mA ⋅ cm−2 and Tafel slope decrease by 49 mV and 62.8 mV ⋅ dec−1 after coloration, respectively. The outstanding OER performance of the coloured state in neutral electrolytes even outperforms the commercial RuO2 benchmark. Experimental and theoretical studies show that oxygen holes within polyanions after irradiation serve as sites for enhancing direct O−O coupling, thus effectively promoting OER. This is the first successful application of electron‐transfer photochromism to realize OER activity gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only rarely have polyoxometalates been found to form core–shell nanoclusters. Here, we succeeded in isolating a series of rare giant and all‐inorganic core–shell cobalt polyoxoniobates (Co−PONbs) with diverse shapes, nuclearities and original topologies, including 50‐nuclearity {Co12Nb38O132}, 54‐nuclearity {Co20Nb34O128}, 62‐nuclearity {Co26Nb36O140} and 87‐nuclearity {Co33Nb54O188}. They are the largest Co−PONbs and also the polyoxometalates containing the greatest number of Co ions and the largest cobalt clusters known thus far. These molecular Co−PONbs have intriguing and atomically precise core–shell architectures comprising unique cobalt oxide cores and niobate oxide shells. In particular, the encapsulated cobalt oxide cores with different nuclearities have identical compositions, structures and mixed‐valence Co3+/Co2+ states as the different sized Co−O moieties of the bulk cubic‐spinel Co3O4, suggesting that they can serve as various molecular models of the cubic‐spinel Co3O4. The successful construction of the series of the Co−PONbs reveals a feasible and versatile synthetic method for making rare core–shell heterometallic PONbs. Further, these new‐type core–shell bimetal species are promising cluster molecular catalysts for visible‐light‐driven CO2 reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compounds with redox activities have appealing applications in catalytic, electronic and magnetic properties, but the redox inert of polyoxoniobates (PONbs) significantly limits their applications for a long time. In this work, we are able to integrate organophosphate and lanthanide cluster into PONb to create the first family of inorganic‐organic hybrid organophosphate‐Ln‐PONb composite clusters. These novel species not only present the first family of redox active PONbs that can be reduced to form long‐lived "heteropoly blues" under ambient conditions, but also a new photochromic system. More importantly, the analyses of the electronic configurations and photochromic properties for a series of designed proof‐of‐concept PONbs models allow us to discover a D‐f‐A electron transfer mechanism, that is, photoinduced electron is transferred from a photosensitive organophosphate electron donor (D) to the NbV electron acceptor (A) through the unoccupied 4 f‐orbitals of Ln (f). This work paves the way for developing diverse PONb‐based redox materials and expanding the possibility of the applications of PONbs in the redox chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work reports the interesting and unique cation‐exchange behaviors of the first indium‐bridged purely inorganic 3D framework based on high‐nuclearity polyoxoniobates as building units. Each nanoscale polyoxoniobate features a fascinating near‐icosahedral core–shell structure with six pairs of unique inorganic "molecular tweezers" that have changeable openings for binding different metal cations via ion‐exchanges and exhibit unusual selective metal‐uptake behaviors. Further, the material has high chemical stability so that can undergo single‐crystal‐to‐single‐crystal metal‐exchange processes to produce a dozen new crystals with high crystallinity. Based on these crystals and time‐dependent metal‐exchange experiments, we can visually reveal the detailed metal‐exchange interactions and mechanisms of the material at the atomic precision level. This work demonstrates a rare systematic and atomic‐level study on the ion‐exchange properties of nanoclusters, which is of significance for the exploration of cluster‐based ion‐exchange materials that are still to be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a giant Sb‐rich polyoxometalate (POM) {Sb21Tb7W56} is reported, which contains the largest number of Sb atoms in a POM so far. The Sb‐rich POM has many interesting structural features and is a rare example of a soluble and water‐stable giant POM. Biomedical studies indicate that the Sb‐rich POM exhibits broad‐spectrum antitumor activity against various cancer cell lines by reactivating the P53‐dependent apoptotic processes and disrupting the mitochondrial membrane. In addition, this Sb‐rich POM was capable of suppressing the growth and metastasis of a breast cancer in vivo. This work demonstrates that Sb‐rich POMs are promising candidates for the development of new anticancer drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cup‐shaped molecules are of great interest due to their appealing architectures and properties. Compared with widely studied calixarenes, polyoxometalate‐based cup‐shaped molecules currently remain a virgin land waiting for exploration. In this work, we report the first discovery of two giant cup‐shaped inorganic–organic hybrid polyoxoniobates (PONbs) of {Cu12Nb120} and {Cd16Nb128}. The former integrates three tricyclic Nb24 clusters and a hexacyclic Nb48 cluster into a cup‐shaped molecule via a Cu12 metallacalixarene, while the latter unifies two tricyclic Nb24 clusters and a brand‐new pentacyclic Nb40 cluster into another cup‐shaped molecule via a hybrid Cd16 unit. With 132 and 144 metal centers, {Cu12Nb120} and {Cd16Nb128} show the largest two inorganic–organic hybrid PONbs known to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of new‐type memristors with special performance is of great interest. Herein, an inorganic‐organic hybrid crystalline polyoxometalate (POM) with usual dynamic structures is reported and used as active material for fabricating memristor with unique temperature‐regulated resistive switching behaviors. The hybrid POM not only exhibits tunable thermochromic properties, but also thermal‐induced reversible aggregation and disaggregation reactions, leading to reversible structural transformations in SCSC fashion. Further, the memory device using the hybrid POM as active layer exhibits uncommon performance, which can keep resistive switching silent in the low temperature range of 30–150 °C, but show nonvolatile memory behavior in the high temperature range of 150–270 °C. Particularly, the silent and working states at three special temperatures (30, 150 and 270 °C) can be monitored by chromism. The correlation between structure and resistive switching property of the material has been discussed. The work demonstrates that crystalline inorganic‐organic hybrid POMs are promising materials for making memristors with superior performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of polyoxoniobates (PONbs) with 3d metal ions, azoles, and organoamines is a general synthetic procedure for making unprecedented PONb metal complex cage materials, including discrete molecular cages and extended cage frameworks. By this method, the first two PONb metal complex cages K4@{[Cu29(OH)7(H2O)2(en)8(trz)21][Nb24O67(OH)2(H2O)3]4} and [Cu(en)2]@{[Cu2(en)2(trz)2]6(Nb68O188)} have been made. The former exhibits a huge tetrahedral cage with more than 120 metal centers, which is the largest inorganic–organic hybrid PONb known to date. The later shows a large cubic cage, which can act as building blocks for cage‐based extended assembly to form a 3D cage framework {[Cu(en)2]@{[Cu2(trz)2(en)2]6[H10Nb68O188]}}. These materials exhibit visible‐light‐driven photocatalytic H2 evolution activity and high vapor adsorption capacity. The results hold promise for developing both novel cage materials and largely unexplored inorganic–organic hybrid PONb chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: A protein‐sized (ca. 4.2×4.2×3.6 nm3) non‐biologically derived molecule {Nb288O768(OH)48(CO3)12} (Nb288) containing up to 288 niobium atoms has been obtained, which is by far the largest and the highest nuclearity polyoxoniobate (PONb). Particularly, in terms of metal nuclearity number, Nb288 is the second largest cluster so far reported in classic polyoxometalate chemistry (V, Mo, W, Nb, and Ta). Nb288 can be described as a giant windmill‐like cluster aggregate of six nanoscale high‐nuclearity PONb units {Nb47O128(OH)6(CO3)2} (Nb47) joined together by six additional Nb ions. Interestingly, the 47‐nuclearity Nb47 units generated in situ can be isolated and bridged by copper complexes to form an inorganic–organic hybrid three‐dimensional PONb framework, which exhibits effective catalytic activity for hydrolyzing nerve agent simulant of dimethyl methylphosphonate. The unique Nb47 cluster also provides a new type of topology to very limited family of Nb‐O clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series containing the highest nuclearity polyoxoniobate (PONb) nanoclusters, ranging from dimers to tetramers, has been obtained. They include one 114-nuclear {Li8⊂Nb114O316}, one 81-nuclear {Li3K⊂Nb81O225}, and one 52-nuclear {H4Nb52O150}. The Nb nuclearity of these PONbs is remarkably larger than those of all known high-nuclearity PONbs (≤32). Furthermore, the introduction of 3d Cu2+ ions can lead to the generation of extended inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks built from novel, high-nuclearity, nanoscale heterometallic PONb building blocks {H3Cu3Nb78O222} or {H3Cu4(en)Nb78O222}. These building blocks also contain the largest number of Nb centers of any heterometallic PONbs reported to date. The synthesis of new-type PONbs has long been a challenging subject in PONb chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of polyoxometalates (POMs) that incorporate the highest-nuclearity Ln clusters that have been observed in such structures to date (Ln26 , Ln=La and Ce) are described, which exhibit giant multishell configurations (Ln⊂W6⊂Ln26⊂W100). Their structures are remarkably different from known giant POMs that feature multiple Ln ions. In particular, the incorporated Ln-O clusters with a nuclearity of 26 are significantly larger than known high-nuclearity (≤10) Ln-O clusters in POM chemistry. Furthermore, they also contain the largest number of La and Ce centers for any POM reported to date and represent a new kind of rare giant POMs with more than 100 W atoms. Interestingly, the La26-containing POM can undergo a single-crystal to single-crystal structural transformation in the presence of various transition-metal ions, such as Cu2+, Co2+, and Ni2+, from an inorganic molecular nanocluster into an inorganic-organic hybrid extended framework that is built from POM building blocks with even higher-nuclearity La28 clusters bridged by transition-metal complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first series of niobium-tungsten-lanthanide (Nb-W-Ln) heterometallic polyoxometalates {Ln12W12O36(H2O)24(Nb6O19)12} (Ln=Y, La, Sm, Eu, Yb) have been obtained, which are comprised of giant cluster-in-cluster-like ({Ln12W12}-in-{Nb72}) structures built from 12 hexaniobate {Nb6O19} clusters gathered together by a rare 24-nuclearity sodalite-type heterometal-oxide cage {Ln12W12O36(H2O)24}. The Nb-W-Ln clusters present the largest multi-metal polyoxoniobates and a series of rare high-nuclearity 4d-5d-4f multicomponent clusters. Furthermore, the giant Nb-W-Ln clusters may be isolated as discrete inorganic alkali salts and can be used as building blocks to form high-dimensional inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series containing the highest nuclearity polyoxoniobate (PONb) nanoclusters, ranging from dimers to tetramers, has been obtained. They include one 114-nuclear {Li8⊂Nb114O316}, one 81-nuclear {Li3K⊂Nb81O225}, and one 52-nuclear {H4Nb52O150}. The Nb nuclearity of these PONbs is remarkably larger than those of all known high-nuclearity PONbs (≤32). Furthermore, the introduction of 3d Cu2+ ions can lead to the generation of extended inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks built from novel, high-nuclearity, nanoscale heterometallic PONb building blocks {H3Cu3Nb78O222} or {H3Cu4(en)Nb78O222}. These building blocks also contain the largest number of Nb centers of any heterometallic PONbs reported to date. The synthesis of new-type PONbs has long been a challenging subject in PONb chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]