A new facile high yield preparative route for mixed-trinuclear acetate clusters

The cluster compounds [FeIII3O(CH3CO2)6(H2O)3]CH3COO, [FeIII2FeIIO(CH3COO)6(H2O)3], [FeIII2CoIIO(CH3COO)6(H2O)3], [FeIII2NiIIO(CH3COO)6(H2O)3], [VIII2FeIIO(CH3COO)6(H2O)3] and [VIII2CoIIO(CH3COO)6(H2O)3 were prepared by new synthetic routes. Homometallic clusters can be isolated from a clean reaction between the metal hydroxide and acetic acid. The heterobimetallic compounds were obtained by the reaction of the iron(III) or vanadium(III)-homometallic cluster, in water, with an excess of iron(II), cobalt(II) and nickel(II) acetates. The new route give pure products with much higher yields when compared with the classical methods. The compounds were characterized by atomic absorption and elemental analysis, electrochemistry and IR spectroscopy.