An undecanuclear iron (III) oxo-hydroxo aggregate with near nanometer size: Synthesis and crystal structure of [Fe11O6(OH)6(O2CPh)3(O2CPhMe-p)12]

The title compound is formed by controlled hydrolytic polymerization in nonaqueous solution of simple oxo-bridged binuclear ferric salts under the presence of carboxylate ligands. The rhombohedral crystalline form of the cluster with six imidazole molecules, which has crystallographically required C_3y symmetry, will be reported. The largest Fe—Fe distance in the undecairon oxo-hydroxo cluster is about 0.68 nm and the cluster has a diameter near 2 nm, which implies that this cluster reach- a nanometer-sized dimension.