Ligand-bridged oligomeric and supramolecular arrays of the hexanuclear rhenium selenide clusters--exploratory synthesis, structural characterization, and property investigation.

Transition metal clusters, by virtue of their well-defined structures and unique properties, present themselves as an attractive class of structural and functional building blocks for molecular and supramolecular construction. Summarized in this Account are highlights of our efforts utilizing face-capped octahedral [Re(6)(mu(3)-Se)(8)](2+) clusters as the fundamental building units to create a wide variety of preprogrammed architectures. These include molecular "Tinkertoys", featuring stereospecific cluster units bridged by multitopic ligands and extended arrays of clusters engineered via hydrogen bonding and secondary metal-ligand coordination.