A family of entangled coordination polymers constructed from a flexible V-shaped long bicarboxylic acid and auxiliary N-donor ligands: Luminescent sensing

Abstract

Eight Zn(II)-based coordination polymers, namely, [Zn2L2(2,2’-bipy)]n·nH2O (1), [Zn2L2(phen)]n·nH2O (2), [ZnL(phen)(H2O)]n (3), [Zn3L3(4,4’-bipy)]n (4), [Zn2L2(4,4’-bipy)2]n [Zn2L2(H2O)2]n·2nH2O (5), [Zn4L4(bpp)2]n (6), [ZnL(bbi)0.5]n (7), [ZnL(bpz)]n (8) (H2L=4,4’-{[1,2-phenylenebis-(methylene)]bis(oxy)}dibenzoic acid, 2,2’-bipy =2,2’-bipyridine, phen =1,10-phenanthroline, 4,4’-bpy=4,4’-bipyridine, bpp =1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane, bbi=1,4-bis(imidazol-1-yl)butane, bpz=3,3′,5,5′-tetramethyl-4,4′-bipyrazole), have been hydrothermally synthesized and structurally characterized. 1–8 display various coordination motifs with different entangled forms and conformations due to the effect of the assistant N-donor ligands. The photoluminescent properties of compounds 1–8 in solid state were studied. Interestingly, 3 exhibits highly efficient luminescent sensing for Cu2+ cations and CrO42- anions, as well as detection ability for the different organic solvents and nitro explosives. These results indicated that it could be utilized as a multi-responsive luminescent sensor. Furthermore, compound 3 also shows good chemical resistance to both acidity and alkalinity solutions with pH ranging from 2 to 13. Thus, multi-photofunctionality and fluorescent response to pH have been combined in the 3, which is the first example in the Zn-based hybrid materials.