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The assembly of giant silver clusters by using macrocylic multidentate ligand remains a challenge. Here, the authors synthesize a chromate-templated 88-nuclei silver super calix and reveal the role of anion templating effects and a hierarchical assembly mechanism.

Fullerene cages that break the isolated pentagon rule are rare and often unstable. Now a range of fullerenes that feature three sequentially fused pentagons of carbon have been stabilized by chlorination.

The structure of C₆₀ is well-known: a perfectly symmetrical sphere of 12 isolated pentagons. But this is only one of 1,812 possible isomers, and the only one to obey the isolated-pentagon rule. So far it has been the only form observed. But now two isomers without isolated pentagons have been made.

The use of metal clusters to construct artificial protein-mimic structures with adaptable cavities has potential for simulating the dynamics and functionality of natural proteins. Here, the authors develop a family of chiral metal-peptide assemblies using {Ni3} clusters and flexible peptides, resulting in structures such as octahedral cages, trigonal prisms, and capsules.

The structures of fullerenes, or buckyballs, are often very difficult to resolve. Here, the authors describe a decapyrrylcorannulene host with ten flexible pyrryl groups that can efficiently co-crystallize with diverse fullerene derivatives in a ‘hand-ball-hand’ fashion, allowing crystallographic identification of commonly known types of fullerenes.

High oxidation resistance, without degradation of thermal or electrical conductivity, is achieved in copper using surface modification by a solvothermal or electrochemical treatment with sodium formate and formation of a thin surface coordination layer.

Chemical manipulation of fullerenes has allowed the production of heptagon-containing fullerenes, but they have not been synthesised using bottom-up approaches. Here, a heptagon-containing fullerene[68] is obtained as C₆₈Cl₆from a carbon arc plasma.

Understanding how one metal nanocluster transforms into another is of synthetic and fundamental importance. Here, the authors use mass spectrometry to reveal an acid-induced structural transformation between two Ag clusters that proceeds via a breakage-growth-reassembly mechanism.

High-nuclearity silver clusters are appealing synthetic targets for their remarkable structures, but most are isolated serendipitously. Here, the authors describe the rational use of solvents to form cluster-in-cluster silver nanowheels, which comprise an octahedral Ag₆⁴⁺ core surrounded by a Ag₅₆ cage of unusual seven-fold symmetry.

Solar-to-chemical CO₂ reduction provides a means to use light’s energy for CO₂ removal and upgrading to useful products, although this photochemical conversion is challenging. Here, authors construct a Europium-containing metal-organic framework that selectively converts CO₂ to formate with light.

The most stable fullerenes obey the isolated-pentagon rule (IPR): hexagons of carbon atoms entirely surround pentagons to minimize strain. Recently, some examples of fused-pentagon fullerenes have been reported and this Review summarizes current work to stabilize non-IPR fullerenes.