Electrostatically controlled hierarchical arrangement of monocationic silver(I) and dicationic mercury(II) ions between disk-shaped template ligands.

This paper describes hierarchical arrangement of three Ag+ and three Hg2+ ions using two disk-shaped hexa-monodentate template ligands in which three oxazolyl rings are arranged each on the two concentric circles. The hierarchical manner of ligand arrangement allows the selective binding of monocationic Ag+ and dicationic Hg2+ ions to the inner first and the outer second generation coordination sites, respectively. This hierarchically well-balanced metal assembly should arise primarily from a minimized electrostatic repulsion between positively charged six metal ions arranged within the heteronuclear complex.