Assembly of a series of coordination polymers built from rigid a tetracarboxylate ligand and flexible bis(imidazole) linker: syntheses, structural diversities, luminescence sensing, and photocatalytic properties

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry 2018, Vol.47 (4), p.1202-1213
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xiu-Tang, Chen, Hong-Tai, Li, Bin, Liu, Guang-Zeng, Liu, Xin-Zheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Benzene; Cadmium; Catalytic activity; Cations; Coordination polymers; Crystal structure; Diffraction; Fluorescence; Hydrocarbons; Hydrothermal crystal growth; Hydrothermal reactions; Imidazole; Ligands; Luminescence; Metal ions; Nitrotoluene; Organic chemistry; Photocatalysis; Polymers; Query languages; Single crystals; X ray powder diffraction; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/c7dt03761a

Hydrothermal reactions of aromatic terphenyl-4,2'',5'',4'-tetracarboxylic acid (H tta) and transitional metal cations in the presence of two flexible N-donor ancillary ligands afforded four novel coordination polymers, namely, {[Zn(tta) (m-bimb)]·H O} (1), [Ni (tta)(m-bimb) (H O)] (2), [Ni(H tta)(o-bimb)·H O] (3), and [Cd(tta) (o-bimb)] (4), from solvothermal reactions in the presence of bis(imidazole) bridging linkers (m-bimb = 1,3-bis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene, and o-bimb = 1,2-bis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene). Their structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses and further characterized by elemental analyses (EA), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and thermogravimetric (TG) analyses. Compound 1 displayed a 2-fold 3D → 3D parallel entangled (4,4)-connected bbf net with the point symbol of (6 ·8 )(6 ) . Compound 2 featured a predocumented 3D (4,8)-connected (3 ·5 ·6)(3 ·4 ·5 ·6 ) net. Compound 3 exhibited a 2D 4-connected sql sheet with the point symbol of (4 ·6 ), and compound 4 showed a 2D 4-connected (3 ·6 ·7 ) kgm sheet. To our delight, fluorescence measurements showed that compound 1 could selectively and sensitively detect Cr cations and nitrobenzene derivatives (nitrobenzene (NB), p-nitrotoluene (PNT), and p-nitroaniline (PNA)), which suggested that CPs of 1 was a promising bifunctional luminescence sensor material that could sense metal ions and small organic molecules. Moreover, 1 showed excellent photocatalytic activity.