Soft-oxometalates (SOMs): When metal oxides are charged and soft (liquid) at room temperature.

What is it about?

Liquids are intriguing and open up possibilities. To a large extent living matter is liquid. What happens when metal-oxides form liquid and that too at room temperature? Lot of possibilities open up. Starting from observation of fascinating architecture at billionth of a meter that can render chemical reactions faster to controlled patterning of surfaces. All such and myriads of other possibilities from conversion of CO2 to fuel with concomitant oxidation of water to produce oxygen with light can take place. Courtesy: Liquid oxometalates or Soft-oxometalates. In this review we visit Soft-oxometalates (SOMs) that are essentially liquids with myriads of possibilities and show what they are and what they can do.

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Why is it important?

SOMs are not new. They have been around since the times of Berzelius and Scheele. In this work we put a structure to the prevalent body of literature that can qualify as SOMs. Defining the SOMs as a soft (liquid) state of oxometalates (charged metal-oxides) enables us to understand: 1. Crystallization of large beautiful molecules known as polyoxometalates, 2. Apply such knowledge in patterning surfaces and making them move 3. Control the architecture of SOMs and engineer better catalysts with more active sites.

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