Compounds with Metal-Metal Bonds between Platinum and Thallium

The recognition of a new type of chemical bond metal-metal bond was one of the most important discoveries in the field of inorganic chemistry in the second part of the 20th century. The fundamental framework of the chemistry of metal clusters has been developed for homonuclear compounds formed by transition (d-block) metals. This text describes a new family of oligonuclear compounds incorporating transition (Pt) and main group (Tl) metals bound with non-buttressed Pt-Tl bonds. The metal-metal linkage is formed by platinum and thallium in their reduced and oxidized forms, Pt(II) and Tl(III), respectively. The bimetallic Pt-Tl compounds are metastable and capable to undergo a photoinduced two- electron transfer between the coupled heterometal ions. The topic of this monograph lies at the interface of inorganic, structural and photo chemistries. Peculiar metal-metal bonding, equlibria, multiple electron transfer and potential applications of oligometallic systems for light harvesting applications ensure that this text will be valuable for a wide range of research workers from these and boundary fields, as well as for students interested in advanced materials.