“…The sulfate ion [41] is a ligand with great coordinative flexibility (μ 2 , μ 3 , μ 4 , μ 5 , μ 6 , μ 8 , or μ 10 potential), see Scheme 2. Metal-sulfato complexes have been studied for their roles in the field of porous framework materials [42,43], in catalysis [44], in the construction of luminescent molecular materials [45,46], and in medicinal [47], environmental [48], and bioinorganic [49] chemistry. The possible advantages of using SO 4 2− instead of R CO 2 − include (i) the possibility of triggering aggregation of preformed smaller cationic species into new, higher-nuclearity products and (ii) the possible diversion of known reaction systems developed using monoanionic carboxylates to new species as a result of the higher charge and higher denticity/bridging capability of sulfates.…”