Inorganica Chimica Acta 331 (2002) 48 – 51 www.elsevier.com/locate/ica Cyano-bridged cluster-metal coordination compound: synthesis and crystal structure of [Cu(NH 3 ) 3 ][Cu(NH 3 ) 4 ][Cu(NH 3 ) 5 ][W 4 Te 4 (CN) 12 ]·5H 2 O Vladimir P. Fedin a, *, Irina V. Kalinina a , Andrey Gerasimenko b , Alexander V. Virovets a a Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Larentjea 3, Noosibirsk 630090, Russia b Institute of Chemistry of the Far -Eastern Diision of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. 100 -letya Vladiostoka 159, Vladiostok 690022, Russia Received 25 May 2001; accepted 27 September 2001 Dedicated to A.G. Sykes in recognition of his many, diverse and creative contributions to Inorganic Chemistry Abstract Dark-brown single crystals of the title compound 1 were obtained in high yield by layering a CuCl 2 solution in 25% aqueous ammonia on a glycerol solution of K 6 [W 4 Te 4 (CN) 12 ]·5H 2 O. The complex 1 was characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and IR spectroscopy. The X-ray structure of 1 reveals a polymeric chain cyano-bridged cluster-metal coordination compound. The [W 4 Te 4 (CN) 12 ] 6 - cluster anions are linked one to another by Cu 2 + cations through coordination by nitrogen atoms of the CN groups. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Crystal structure; Copper complexes; Telluride complexes; Cyano-bridged complexes; Cubane-type complexes 1. Introduction Homo- and heterometallic cuboidal cluster com- plexes with bridging chalcogenide ligands are known for a wide variety of transition metals and they appear to be one of the most important common basic struc- tures of transition metal cluster complexes [1]. Ho- mometallic Mo 4 S 4 cubane-type clusters have been known for some 20 years [2–6]. They have the general formula [Mo 4 S 4 L 12 ], where L denotes ligating atoms of either neutral or anionic ligands. Cubane-type molecu- lar cluster complexes [Mo 4 Se 4 ] 4 +/5 +/6 + have also been reported by Sykes for the first time [7,8]. In contrast to molybdenum, reports of W 4 chalcogenide complexes in the literature are very scarce. The corresponding tel- lurides were also neglected. In the course of our joint study with Sykes on the synthesis and reactivities of solid-state molybdenum and tungsten chalcogenides, we have recently obtained the first complexes with cubane- type M 4 Te 4 (M =Mo, W) cluster cores [9,10]. In the present paper a cubane-type telluride compound K 6 [W 4 Te 4 (CN) 12 ]·5H 2 O was used for the synthesis of a polymeric chain cyano-bridged cluster-metal coordina- tion compound [Cu(NH 3 ) 3 ][Cu(NH 3 ) 4 ][Cu(NH 3 ) 5 ]- [W 4 Te 4 (CN) 12 ]·5H 2 O(1) in which the [W 4 Te 4 (CN) 12 ] 6 - cluster anions are linked one to another by Cu 2 + cations through coordination by nitrogen atoms of the CN groups. 2. Experimental 2.1. Syntheses All the manipulations were performed in air. K 6 [W 4 Te 4 (CN) 12 ]·5H 2 O were prepared according to the procedure published earlier [10]. Elemental analyses were carried out in the Laboratory of Microanalysis, * Corresponding author. Tel.: +7-3832-355 253; fax: +7-3832- 344 489. E-mail address: cluster@che.nsk.su (V.P. Fedin). 0020-1693/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0020-1693(01)00754-X