Metallostars: High-nuclearity linearly developed nanostructures containingmultiple cluster motifs

Metallostars are complexes in which a single branching site bears a number of metallated arms. Although they are related to metallodendrimers, they ha ve the advantage of being capable of extending in an unlimited sense; in co ntrast to metallodendrimers, steric interactions decrease with increasing g eneration number. In this paper a series of polyalkyne stars with four and six arms, based upon a single tetrahedral carbon core and a benzene core, r espectively, are reported and their reactions with [Co-2(CO)(8)] to give me tallostars that contain multiple {C2Co2(CO)(6)} motifs are described.