Thallium(I) supramolecular compounds: Structural and properties consideration

During the last two decades, supramolecular compounds and especially coordination polymers have received great attention and the number of their synthesized compounds is still growing, which is mainly due to their potential application in various fields such as microelectronics, nonlinear optics, ion exchange, catalysis, gas storage, separation and luminescence. Formation of polymers with main group metal ions such as thallium(I) is disproportionately sparse when compared with those of other metals. Because of the interest structures, properties and applications of thallium polymers, it is necessary to understand thallium's ability to bind donors and form supramolecular compounds. This review tries to give an overview of all supramolecular compounds which were reported from thallium(I) after 1990 and to investigate their properties and applications. Thallium(I) usually forms neutral species and exhibits greater tendency to forming one-dimensional supramolecular compounds. Thallium(I) also favors secondary interactions on its coordination sphere (especially with unsaturated carbon atoms forms organometallic polymers) with stereochemically active lone pair and hemidirected coordination sphere around it.