Tandem Silver Cluster Isomerism and Mixed Linkers to Modulate the Photoluminescence of Cluster-Assembled Materials.

Silver chalcogenolate cluster assembled materials (SCAMs) are a category of promising light-emitting materials the luminescence of which can be modulated by variation of their building blocks (cluster nodes and organic linkers). The transformation of a singly emissive [Ag12 (SBut )8 (CF3 COO)4 (bpy)4 ]n (Ag12 bpy, bpy=4,4'-bipyridine) into a dual-emissive [(Ag12 (SBut )6 (CF3 COO)6 (bpy)3 )]n (Ag12 bpy-2) via cluster-node isomerization, the critical importance of which was highlighted in dictating the photoluminescence properties of SCAMs. Moreover, the newly obtained Ag12 bpy-2 served to construct visual thermochromic Ag12 bpy-2/NH2 by a mixed-linker synthesis, together with dichromatic core-shell Ag12 bpy-2@Ag12 bpy-NH2 -2 via solvent-assisted linker exchange. This work provides insight into the significance of metal arrangement on physical properties of nanoclusters.