Self-Assembly of Goldberg Polyhedra from a Concave [WV5O11(RCO2)5(SO4)]3– Building Block with 5-Fold Symmetry

Nanoscale regular polyhedra with icosahedral symmetry exist naturally as exemplified by virus capsids and fullerenes. Nevertheless, their generation by supramolecular chemistry through the linking of 5-fold symmetry vertices remains unmet because of the absence of 5-fold symmetry building blocks with the requisite geometric features. This situation contrasts with that of tetrahedral and octahedral symmetry metal–organic polyhedra (MOPs), for which appropriate triangular and square molecular building blocks (MBBs) that can serve as vertices or faces are readily available. Herein, we report isolation of a pentagonal [WV 5 O 11 (SO 4 ) 6 ] 8– cluster and reveal its utility to afford the first four examples of nanoscale Goldberg MOPs, based upon 5-fold MBBs. Two 32-faced G v (1,1) MOPs and two 42-faced G v (2,0) MOPs were formed using linear or triangular organic ligands, respectively. The largest Goldberg MOP-4, exhibits a diameter of 4.3 nm, can trap fullerene C 60 molecules in its interstitial cavities.