title: Amphiphilic and magnetic properties of a new class of cluster-bearing [L2Cu4(mu4-O)(mu2-carboxylato)4] soft materials.
abstract: A general approach toward amphiphilic systems bearing multimetallic clusters and their ability to form Langmuir-Blodgett films is presented. The synthetic strategy to stabilize these clusters involves the use of a ligand (HL) containing an N(2)O-donor set and long octadecanoic chains to obtain the carboxylate-supported [L(2)Cu(4)(mu(4)-O)(mu(2)-OAc)(4)]EtOH (1) and [L(2)Cu(4)(mu(4)-O)(mu(2)-OBz)(4)] (2) in which OAc(-) and OBz(-) represent acetate (1) and benzoate (2) co-ligands. These species were thoroughly characterized and had their structures solved by X-ray crystallography. We observed that the mu-oxo Cu(4) cluster is antiferromagnetically coupled and used broken-symmetry density functional theory (DFT) calculations to describe the main superexchange pathways of the tetracopper core. We also describe the amphiphilic properties of the ligand and the cluster-containing systems by means of area versus pressure isotherms and show that these cluster-bearing species can be transferred onto solid substrates yielding homogeneous Langmuir-Blodgett films, as characterized by atomic force microscopy and contact angle measurements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
authors.forename: Rajendra
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shakya
authors.forename: Sarmad Sahiel
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Hindo
authors.forename: Libo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Suolong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Allard
authors.forename: Mary Jane
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Heeg
authors.forename: Sandro R P
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: da Rocha
authors.forename: Gordon T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Yee
authors.forename: Hrant P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Hratchian
authors.forename: Cláudio N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Verani