Halide-controlled Construction and Structural Determination of a Series of Thiolato-bridged 16-Nuclear Copper(I) Clusters from Benzothiazoline

Treatment of [Cu(CH3CN)(4)](+) with 2-(4-dimethylaminophenyl)benzothiazoline in the presence of halide ions (X = Cl-, Br-, and I-) gave [Cu16L12X](3+) (L = (C6H4NMe2)CH=N-(C6H4)S-) with a spherical Cu16S12 structure, while similar treatment in the absence of halide ions afforded [Cu8L8](2+) with a cyclic Cu8S8 structure.