Comment on: "Synthesis of dodecamolybdoantimonate(v) salts containing the Keggin structure" by Raj P. Singh, Radheshyam P. Khatri, Jean Dubois, Sushma S. Gaur and Mitsuo Abe, J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans., 1990, 947-951

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry Vol. 47; no. 43; pp. 15613 - 15615
• Main Authors: Hartl, Hans, Lunk, Hans-Joachim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 21.11.2018
• Subjects: Cesium; Molybdenum oxides; Organic chemistry; Rubidium
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/c8dt00712h

The existence of a dodecamolybdoantimonate( v ) anion with the Keggin structure would be a highlight of the heteropolyoxometalate chemistry as a whole. However, we could not confirm the existence of ammonium, potassium, rubidium and cesium dodecamolybdoantimonate as claimed by the authors. As a matter of fact, the authors misinterpreted their presented experimental data. Instead of the dodecamolybdoantimonates, the well-known hexagonal molybdenum oxide was prepared. The given misinformation has to be corrected, even 28 years after its publication. Instead of the claimed synthesis of M 3 [α-SbO 4 (Mo 3 O 9 ) 4 ]· n H 2 O (M = NH 4 , K, Rb, Cs) with Keggin anion, the authors simply prepared well-known hexagonal molybdenum oxide.