Mother structures related to the hexagonal and cubic close packing in Cu24 clusters: solvent-influenced derivatives

Compound 1 [Cu-24(m-BDC)(24)(DMF)(20)(H2O)(4)]center dot 24DMF center dot 40H(2)O (m-BDC is 1,3-benzenedicarboxylate and DMF is N, N-dimethylformamide) has been synthesized and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction. It consists of Cu-24 clusters arranged in such a way that 12 dimers are connected through m-BDC ligands. The clusters exhibit an internal cavity where crystallization molecules of DMF and water are located. Additionally, there are guest DMF and water molecules in the voids generated by the 3D packing of the Cu-24 clusters. The thermal stability of compound 1 has also been characterized, concluding that hydrogen bonds between solvent molecules are responsible for the robustness of the network. Compound 1 is similar to seven other compounds found in the literature. This work is focused on the crystallochemical comparison of these compounds, which concludes that there are two mother structures related to the hexagonal and cubic close packing of polyhedra. Derivative compounds are produced in the presence of different solvent molecules (differences affecting both the nature and the number of the guest molecules).