ChemInform Abstract: Synthetic and Structural Studies on High-Nuclearity Silver Ethynide Cluster Systems

A large family of crystalline organometallic compounds with silver ethynide (R–C≡CAg) as a component has been synthesized and characterized. In most cases the R–C≡C− species coordinate to 3–5 silver(I) atoms, which may be symbolized as R–C≡C⊃Ag n (n = 3, 4, 5; R = alkyl, aryl, heteroaryl) by leaving out the charges. In the present review, emphasis is laid on systematic synthetic and structural studies of high-nuclearity silver ethynide clusters, of which the size and shape can be controlled to a certain extent by the judicious choice of templating anions and auxiliary ligands.