Towards purely inorganic clusters in medicine: Biocompatible divalent cations as counterions of cobaltabis(dicarbollide) and its iodinated derivatives

Monovalent cations, Cs+, and alkylammonium ([NR4]+) salts have traditionally been used to precipitate the anions of boranes, carborane and metallocarborane clusters. In contrast, in the body and in living organisms in general, divalent cations have a special relevance. In this work, we isolate for the first time the cobaltabis(dicarbollide) salts of the biocompatible divalent cations of biological importance that can have application both in biology and in materials science. The preparation of Ca2+, Mg2+ and Fe2+ salts of anionic iodinated nido-[C2B9H12]− and cobaltabis(dicarbollide) as well as its di-, tetra- and octa-iodinated derivatives are reported. Ca2+ and Mg2+ are hard Lewis acids a…