Controlled assembly of zero-, one-, two-, and three-dimensional metal chalcogenide structures

A room-temperature solution route to the controlled synthesis of 0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-D assemblies of molecularly linked metal chalcogenide clusters using essentially identical building blocks is reported. The solvating, ligating, and reducing abilities of hydrazine at room temperature have been exploited to simultaneously dissolve metal chalcogenides and organize the resulting building blocks into frameworks of increasing dimensionalities. Control of the product dimensionality was achieved by varying the reactant ratios and the amount of hydrazine solvent employed in the reaction. The products have been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and magnetic susceptibility.