Towards the installation of transition metal ions on donor ligand decorated tin sulfide clusters.

Decoration of tetrelchalcogenide T-E clusters with chelating donor ligands was achieved to capture transition metal ions on their surfaces. We demonstrate that by covalent linking of bispyridyl ligands to an Sn-S complex, [ZnX](+) units can be trapped and incorporated into the cluster framework. Intermediates that were identified using spectroscopy and/or X-ray diffraction gave insight into the formation processes.