The discovery of gigantic molecular nanostructures like coordination and
polyoxometalate clusters is extremely time-consuming since a vast combinatorial
space needs to be searched, and even a systematic and exhaustive exploration of the
available synthetic parameters relies on a great deal of serendipity. Here we
present a synthetic methodology that combines a flow reaction array and algorithmic
control to give a chemical ‘real-space’ search engine leading
to the discovery and isolation of a range of new molecular nanoclusters based on
[Mo2O2S2]2+-based building
blocks with either fourfold (C4) or fivefold (C5) symmetry
templates and linkers. This engine leads us to isolate six new nanoscale cluster
compounds: 1, {Mo10(C5)}; 2,
{Mo14(C4)4(C5)2};
3, {Mo60(C4)10}; 4,
{Mo48(C4)6}; 5,
{Mo34(C4)4}; 6,
{Mo18(C4)9}; in only 200 automated experiments
from a parameter space spanning ~5 million possible combinations.