Syntheses, structures, and properties of three MOFs based on tertbutylphenyl imidazole dicarboxylate

By hydrothermal reactions of a newly designed ligand, 2-(p-tert-butylphenyl)-1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid (H3BuPhIDC) with Cd(II) or Zn(II), three metal-organic frameworks, [Cd((3)-HBuPhIDC)(H2O)]2H(2)O (1), [Cd((3)-HBuPhIDC)(4,4-bipy)(0.5)] (4,4-bipy=4,4-bipyridine) (2), and [Zn-2((3)-HBuPhIDC)(2)(CH3OH)(2)] (3), have been obtained and characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectroscopy, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. In 1, small countless diamond grids form a mesh structure and then are bridged through (3)-HBuPhIDC2- linkers building a 3-D framework. Compared with 1, 4,4-bipy participates in the construction of a 3-D structure of 2. Polymer 3 shows an interesting 3-D open architecture, which contains infinite 1-D octagonal channels built by left- and right-handed helical chains. Thermal and solid-state photoluminescence properties of the polymers have been investigated.