Self-assembly of Molecular Stars

What is it about?

Self-assembly is a key process in biology and essential to the functioning of many proteins but is less well explored in chemistry. In this paper we demonstrate how careful ligand choice leads to the self-assembly of a mixed-valence FeII-FeIII star. Our magnetic studies show that unlike related stars this compound is a weak molecular magnet.

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Why is it important?

The uniqueness here is that prior to this study nobody had previously used such constrained tridentate NNO ligands with FeIII. We found to our surprise that this promoted reduction of the metal to FeII and subsequent self-assembly to form a mixed-valence star. The study also shows that while magnetic anisotropy increases on the peripheral FeII centres that overall the compound becomes a poorer single-molecule magnet compared to related all FeIII systems.