Syntheses, structures, luminescent and photocatalytic properties of two Zn(II) coordination polymers assembled with mixed bridging N-donors and 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,5-imidazole dicarboxylic acid ligand

Abstract

Two new Zn(II) coordination polymers with the formulas of {[Zn3(HCpIDC)2(4,4′-bipy)(H2O)]·4H2O}n (1) and {[Zn2(CpIDC)(BIMB)]·H2O}n (2) [H4CpIDC = 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,5-imidazole dicarboxylic acid, 4,4′-bipy = 4,4′-bipyridine, and BIMB = 1,4-bis(1-imidazolyl)benzene] have been successfully synthesized. Both complexes 1 and 2 feature 3D frameworks in which the IDC groups of HCpIDC3- and CpIDC4− ligands link metal nodes leading to infinite 21 helical chains. The HCpIDC3- and CpIDC4− anions exhibit two coordination modes (μ4–kN,O: kN′,O′: kO″,O‴: kO″″ and μ5–kN,O: kN′,O′: kO″,O‴: kO″″: kO) in different coordination environments. Further structural analyses show that 1 and 2 are topologically bimodal 4-connected net and trinodal (3,4,6)-connected net, respectively. As is expected, two complexes with good thermal stability displayed strong fluorescence emissions in the solid state at the room temperature. Moreover, complex 1 has some extent of photocatalytic activities for RhB.