No abstract

Coordination polymers (CPs) 1-3 have attracted considerable attention because of their potential applications in gas storage, [4][5][6] catalysis, 7 ion exchange, 8 separation, 9 biomedicine, 10,11 etc. For use in the abovementioned applications, the structure and morphology of these CPs have been controlled by judicious choice of metals, ligands, and reaction conditions. Recently, Oh and coworkers have reported that CPs can be successfully converted into metal oxides by calcination without causing any significant change in their morphology. 12,13 This strategy offers great opportunities to CPs chemistry that various metal oxides can be formed as morphologies of CPs dictate. The CPs synthesized thus far mainly comprise transition metal ions and organic ligands having more than two carboxylate functional groups. The synthesized CPs are calcined to form metal oxides, while maintaining the shape of the particles of the former. Many of the important compound semiconductors are metal chalcogenides formed between a metal and sulfur. Yamamoto's group has reported that (alkylthiolato)metal complexes can be pyrolyzed to form metal sulfides.14 The same strategy can be applied to the preparation of metal sulfide nanostructures and microstructures. Metal sulfides are synthesized as follows. Metal ions are allowed to react with ligands containing sulfur sources, such as organothiols, to form metal sulfide CPs, which are subsequently calcined to obtain metal sulfide nanostructures or microstructures. This is expected to be a novel method for obtaining metal sulfide nanostructures or microstructures via the formation of metal thiolate CPs. Herein, we report the formation of CPs from Cd(II) ions and mercaptosuccinic acid (MSA) in aqueous solution and the calcination of the obtained CPs to form CdS particles without any change in the morphology.

No abstract