A high-nuclearity complex containing a decanuclear iron(iii)/oxo cage in a football-like structure and rare (R -/ S)-hemiacetalate ligands in a butterfly-like format

A challenge in the field of high nuclearity Fe(iii)/oxo cluster chemistry remains the development of new synthetic methods to such molecules. In this work, the employment of pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde (py-2-al) in high-nuclearity transition-metal cluster chemistry has provided access to an unprecedented decanuclear iron(iii) complex, [Fe₁₀(NO₃)₇(O)₆(OH_0.5)₂((S)-py-hemi)₄((R)-py-hemi)₄]·4H₂O (1) ((R-/S)-py-hemi = (R-/S)-pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde hemiacetalate). The synthesis, beautiful structure and the physical characterization (thermal gravimetric analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetic susceptibility) of complex 1 are described in this contribution. Complex 1 provides a new route to obtain high nuclearity magnetic clusters with beautiful structures.