Assembling Polyoxometalate Clusters into Advanced Nanoarchitectures

We present the polyoxometalate supramolecular nanobuilding blocks-based well-defined and robust rose, snowlike, and ice ball architectures by simple but effective exploitation of noncovalent interactions in the reaction system. All structures begin from the formation of disk assemblies that act as foundation for the construction of diverse, well-defined architectures. The rose, snow flowers, and ice balls, and the corresponding growth mechanisms are unambiguously demonstrated by collecting and analyzing intermediate morphologies. Different assembly shapes show interesting hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface properties which may provide opportunities to develop more suitable functional materials for different systems to overcome the polarity restrictions. All assemblies form through the precisely order and successive organization of polyoxometalate nanosupramolecules in a lamellar pattern that may be prompted or slowed-down by controlling ambient temperature of the reaction system. We expect the well-defined shape and the corresponding nano- and microspacing can act as hosts for foreign gust to develop new multifunctional materials.