Structural reliability of building blocks in coordination framework design

The use of the building-block methodology in designing coordination framework materials are discussed with particular reference to the structural reliability of a given building block. The term structural reliability is defined for a given metal containing moiety as the degree to which that building block reproducibly adopts a given, predicted, coordination arrangement when reacted with a series of chemically related bridging ligands. This terminology is discussed with respect to a range of coordination frameworks constructed using Cd(NO3)(2) as a building-block, which is demonstrated to be structurally unreliable. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.