Assembly of silver Trigons into a buckyball-like Ag₁₈₀ nanocage.

ABSTRACT: Buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀) represents a perfect combination of geometry and molecular structural chemistry. It has inspired many creative ideas for building fullerene-like nanopolyhedra. These include other fullerenes, virus capsids, polyhedra based on DNA, and synthetic polynuclear metal clusters and cages. Indeed, the regular organization of large numbers of metal atoms into one highly complex structure remains one of the foremost challenges in supramolecular chemistry. Here we describe the design, synthesis, and characterization of a Ag₁₈₀ nanocage with 180 Ag atoms as 4-valent vertices (V), 360 edges (E), and 182 faces (F)--sixty 3-gons, ninety 4-gons, twelve 5-gons, and twenty 6-gons--in agreement with Euler's rule V - E + F = 2. If each 3-gon (or silver Trigon)

SUBMITTER: Wang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5699068 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature