Structural motifs and topological representation of Mn coordination clusters

Polynuclear coordination clusters have become of particular interest in recent times as a result of their relevance to bioinorganic chemistry and to the special area of molecule-based magnetic materials where cluster compounds behave as single-molecule magnets (SMMs). In this review we have focused on describing Mn coordination cluster complexes. Adopting our topological approach for the description of coordination clusters we present a means of classifying the structural motifs found in manganese clusters which range in nuclearity from 5 to 84, as well as some representative heterometallic Mn-M (M = K, Na, Ca, Sr, Ln) cluster complexes that have been reported. This sheds new light on the classification of the types of core structure accessible which, in turn, provides a useful means for developing the so-far missing magneto-structural correlation algorithm for these finite 0-D systems (212 references).