Tetrahedral chalcogenide clusters and open frameworks.

By integrating porosity with electrical or optical properties, microporous chalcogenides may have unique applications. Here we review recent advances and discuss concepts in the synthesis and crystal structure of tetrahedral clusters and their frameworks. These chalcogenides can be viewed as trivalent metal chalcogenides doped with tetra-, di-, or monovalent metal cations. Low-valent cations help to increase the cluster size, while high-valent cations have the opposite effect.