Design and crystal structures of triple helicates with crystallographic idealized D3 symmetry: the role of side chain effect on crystal packing

Novel crystallographic D3-symmetric binuclear triple molecular helices [Co2L(1)3][BF4]4 (1), [Zn2L(1)3][BF4]4 (2), [Mn2L(1)3][BF4]4 (3), [Co2L(2)3][BF4]4 (4), [Zn2L(2)3][BF4]4 (5), and [Mn2L(2)3][BF4]4 (6) have been achieved to establish the side chain effect on molecular packing, where L1 is [(C5H4N)C(CH3)=N-(C6H4)-]2CH2 and L2 is [(C5H4N)C(CH3)=N-(C6H4)-]2O, respectively. Crystal structure analyses show that each helix crystallizes in a hexagonal crystal system with space group Pc1 and the general axis of the helix occupies the crystallographic 3-fold axial position with the other three crystallographic 2-fold symmetries perpendicular to it. Each metal center is bound to three pyridylimine units to attain C3 pseudooctahedral coordination geometry with respective equivalent metal-N (CH=N) and metal-N (pyridyl) bonds. It is speculated that the existence of the methyl group might minimize the potential intermolecular interactions, which would be the essential factor controlling the helices formed in idealized crystallographic D3 symmetry. Moreover, crystallographic idealized C3-symmetric helicates [Co2L(3)3][BF4]4 (7), [Zn2L(3)3][BF4]4 (8), [Ni2L(3)3][BF4]4 (9), and [Cu2L(3)3][BF4]4 (10) were also structurally characterized for comparison, where L3 is [(C5H4N)C(CH3)=N-]2. All the results indicate that the existence of the methyl group in the side chain of aromatic ligands could effectively reduce the potential - intermolecular interactions and the side chain effect of the methyl group in crystal packing is robust enough to be exchanged from one network structure to another, which ensures the generality and predictability of the crystallographic idealized symmetry formation to a certain extent.