`Soft-Oxo-Metalates' (SOMs): A Very Short Introduction

TL;DR

This paper introduces 'Soft Oxometalates' (SOMs), a new class of large, soft-matter polyoxometalate structures formed through supramolecular interactions, expanding the understanding of POMs beyond covalent bonds.

Contribution

It defines and discusses 'Soft Oxometalates', providing examples from literature and the author's work, and raises questions about their universality among POMs.

Findings

Soft Oxometalates are large, soft-matter POM structures.

Examples include spontaneous and deliberately designed SOMs.

Open question on whether all POMs are soft.

Abstract

The field of polyoxometalates (POMs), in recent times, has entered a new arena of 'soft'-supramolecular interactions, crossing the molecular regime of covalent bonds. The structures resulting from such 'soft'-supramolecular interactions are much larger (~10-500 nm in diameter) showing soft-matter properties. This comment proposes to name them 'Soft' Oxometalates. The comment after introducing and archiving seminal examples of Soft Oxometalates, gives few examples from the author's work where Soft Oxometalates are generated spontaneously and those designed by deliberate chemical reactions (also followed by very few selected examples from the literature). The comment ends with an open question: are all POMs soft?