Immediate Formation/Precipitation of Icosahedrally Structured Iron-Molybdenum Mixed Oxides from Solutions Upon Mixing Simple Iron(III) and Molybdate Salts

The present investigation refers to nanostructured mixed metal oxides-more specifically to iron-molybdenum oxides most simply obtained by addition of iron(III) chloride to an aqueous solution of sodium molybdate acidified with acetic acid. The immediately obtained yellow non-crystalline solid consists of highly symmetrical icosahedral {Mo72Fe30} motifs which is proven by IR, Raman, Fe-57 Mossbauer and XP spectra. This remarkable result is obtained in spite of the immediate precipitation of the mentioned compound and even from an inhomogeneous mixture of the educts. This again proves the high formation tendency of spherical clusters. The procedure offers in principle the option to encapsulate species present in solution.