Earlier I have already published a small guide about preparing figures in Mercury. Here I would like to focus on some technical details and tricks that you can use.
Getting the cif file
This structure is taken from the article. You can get the cif-file from The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre program – ConQest (Refcode: ASETEZ) or via a special form (number 1471470) on the website of CCDC.
Preparation in Mercury
Now let’s open the cif-file in mercury. Hide all of the solvent molecules, as well as the Na cations. You can use Normal picking mode or Laso selection mode if you did not accidentally hit the atom and the entire selection was reset, press (Ctrl + Z). After all the desired atoms are selected, right-click Show / Hide-Hide atoms.
It should look something like this:
Using Lasso select the central cluster and change style to Spacefill.
Then use the same trick for the selection of Fe and Mo atoms and change their style to Polyhedral.
Now let’s go to Display-Styles-Polyhedral Display Options and change Opacity to 0.7-0.8.
It’s time to render, find a good view and set up Material Properties–Shiny and that’s done! As a bonus, you can create gif animation for this structure (how to do it see in the guide).
