Amino acid is one of the most important biological ligands.Researches on the coordination of metal-amino acid complexes will help us better understand the complicated behavior of the active site of metal enzyme.Several 3d-4f-aminoacid cluster compounds have been synthesized in our group.Generally Ln3+ ion with larger ionic radius prefers high coordination number (sometimes up to twelve),while low coordination number for those with smaller ionic radius.In general,it is also called as lanthanide contraction effect.Nevertheless,at many cases,a series of isostruetural compounds can be synthesized with the lanthanides varying from La3+ to Lu3+ ion.Recently,three anisostructural types of 3d-4f cluster compounds were obtained with the various lanthanides.At first,for La,Pr and Sm compounds (1),1D catenarian polymers comprise of lanthanide dimers bridged by four blade-like trans-Cu(gly)2 groups,generating in which the structure of its repeating unit may be described as a four-blade propeller.Next,for Eu and Dy compounds (2),2D compounds are composed of Ln6Cu22 clusters linked by cis-Cu(gly)2 groups to form a porous material.Finally,a 3D Er compound (3) is made up of Er6Cu24 clusters connected by cis-Cu(gly)2 groups.Each Er6Cu24 cluster interconnects eight symmetry-related Er6Cu24 clusters through twelve cis-Cu(gly)2 groups to a 3D porous material with a number of ClO4-,Na+ and lattice water occupied in the channels.