Structural diversity and properties of ZnIIand CdIIcomplexes with a flexible dicarboxylate building block 1,3-phenylenediacetate and various heterocyclic co-ligandsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Selected bond distances and angles, structural diagrams, powder XRD patterns, TGA curves. CCDC reference numbers 717136–717141 for complexes 1–6. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/b901418g

A series of ZnIIand CdIIcomplexes with a flexible dicarboxylate building block and various heterocyclic co-ligands, formulated as {[Zn2(pda)2(phen)2]·2H2O}n(1), {[Zn(pda)(dpe)]·H2O}n(2), [Zn(pda)(bpp)]n(3), {[Cd2(pda)2(2,2′-bipy)2]·2H2O}n(4), {[Cd(pda)(4,4′-bipy)(H2O)]·H2O}n(5) and {[Cd2(pda)2(bpp)3]·14H2O}n(6) (pda = 1,3-phenylenediacetate, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline, dpe = 1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethylene, bpp = 1,3-bi(4-pyridyl)propane, 2,2′-bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine, and 4,4′-bipy = 4,4′-bipyridine), have been synthesized and structurally characterized. In 1, the (H2O)8clusters interlink the cyclic coordination dimers to give a 3D network through hydrogen bonding. Both 2and 3feature 2D corrugated (4,4) layers, which are of 2-fold interpenetrating for 3. In 4, the dimeric CdIIsubunits are connected by the 1,3-pda ligands to generate a rampart-shaped 1D chain motif. As for 5, the [Cd(pda)]2rings are connected by the paired 4,4′-bipy ligands to afford a tube-shaped 1D motif. In contrast to 1–5, complex 6displays a 3D diamond network and, interestingly, the T5(0)A(0)A(2) water tapes are found to locate in the channels of this 3-D array. A structural comparison of these complexes demonstrates that the characteristics of auxiliary ligands (from chelating to bridging) play a key role in governing the coordination motifs as well as the 3-D supramolecular lattices. Solid-state properties such as photoluminescence and thermal stability of 1–6have also been studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]