New advances in zirconium phosphate and phosphonate chemistry: Structural archetypes

This paper will present a survey of new zirconium phosphates and phosphonates, recently appeared in the literature, with structure different from that of the traditional α- and γ-type zirconium phosphates. The structure and properties of compounds with different dimensionality, such as one-dimensional chains, new layered compounds, and even open-framework 3-D solids, will be discussed. In many cases the presence of groups different from phosphate or phosphonate tetrahedra, coordinated to zirconium, such as fluoride, chloride, or hydroxyl groups, and neutral ligands such as dimethylsulfoxide, was found. Some of these new compounds showed unusual characteristics and reactivity; they can offer new possibilities to the materials chemists for the preparation of tailor made compounds, with structure and reactivity that can be tuned for specific purposes.