A heterobimetallic tetrahedron from a linear platinum(II)-bis(acetylide) metalloligand

Employing 4-ethynylaniline as a simple organic ligand we were able to prepare the stable trans -bis(acetylide)platinum(II) complex [Pt(L 1 ) 2 (PBu 3 ) 2 ] as a linear metalloligand. The reaction of this metalloligand with iron(II) cations and pyridine-2-carbaldehyde according to the subcomponent self-assembly approach yielded decanuclear heterobimetallic tetrahedron [Fe 4 Pt 6 (L 2 ) 12 ](OTf) 8 . Thus, combination of these two design concepts – the subcomponent self-assembly strategy and the complex-as-a-ligand approach – ensured a fast and easy synthesis of large heterobimetallic coordination cages of tetrahedral shape with a diameter of more than 3 nm as a mixture of all three possible T -, S 4 - and C 3 -symmetric diastereomers. The new complexes were characterized by NMR and UV–vis spectroscopy and ESI mass spectrometry. Using GFN2-xTB we generated energy-minimized models of the diastereomers of this cage that further corroborated the results from analytical findings.