Electrostatically Controlled Hierarchical Arrangement of Monocationic Silver(I) and Dicationic Mercury(II) Ions between Disk-Shaped Template Ligands

This paper describes hierarchical arrangement of three Ag+ and three Hg2+ ions using two disk-shaped hexa-monodentate template ligands in which three oxazolyl rings are arranged each on the two concentric circles. The hierarchical manner of ligand arrangement allows the selective binding of monocationic Ag+ and dicationic Hg2+ ions to the inner first and the outer second generation coordination sites, respectively. This hierarchically well-balanced metal assembly should arise primarily from a minimized electrostatic repulsion between positively charged six metal ions arranged within the heteronuclear complex.