A chiral interdigitated supramolecular network assembled from single-stranded helical tubes

The amino-functionalized helical chiral one-dimensional coordination polymer catena-poly[[bis(pyridine-kappa N)zinc(II)]-mu-2-aminobenzene-1,4-dicarboxylato-kappa O-4(1),O-1':O-4,O-4'], [Zn-(C8H5NO4)(C5H5N)(2)](n), has an extended structure that is assembled from 2-aminobenzene-1,4-dicarboxylate anions and Zn2+ cations and which presents a left-handed 43 helix with a pitch of 25.6975 (9) angstrom. All the pyridine rings and all the amino groups point away from the helix to generate a hollow tube with a cross-section of approximately 8 x 8 angstrom running parallel to the crystallographic c direction. Each single-stranded helix is interdigitated with four neighbouring helices via N-H center dot center dot center dot O hydrogen bonds, which gives rise to a dense homochiral three-dimensional supramolecular network.