Layered and pillar-layered metal–organic frameworks based on pinwheel trinuclear zinc-carboxylate clustersCCDC reference numbers 798135–798137for compounds 1to 3. For crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI:.

Three new Zn(ii) metal–organic coordination polymers, [Zn3(STDC)3(py)2] (1), [Zn3(STDC)3(4,4′-bpy)] (2), [Zn3(STDC)3(bpea)] · 3H2O (3), where H2STDC = trans-stilbene-4,4′-dicarboxylic acid, py = pyridine, 4,4′-bipy = 4,4′-bipyridine, bpea = 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane, were prepared by solvothermal reactions of Zn(ii) acetate with H2STDC in the presence of py or linear bis(pyridyl) molecules. Compound 1is a 2D triangle-tessellated layered network based on a pinwheel trinuclear zinc-carboxylate clusters as secondary building unit with py as the terminal ligand. Compounds 2and 3contain similar layers, which are linked into layer-pillared 3D frameworks by the ditopic bipy or bpea ligand in place of py. Comparing the structures of 2and 3, the increase in pillar length does not lead to increased multiplicity in interpenetration, due to the limitation of the intralayer space dimensions, but it induces expanded and unequal interlayer separations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]