Effects of Metal Ions and N-Donor Ligands with Different Coordination Characters on the Construction of d10 Metal-organic Complexes with Selective Photocatalytic Activities

Four new d(10) metal-organic coordination polymers, [Zn(L)(phen)(H2O)] (1), [Cd(L)(phen)] (2), [Zn(L)(bppdc)]center dot 3H(2)O (3), and [Cd(L)(bppdc)]center dot 3H(2)O (4) [L = 2-carboxymethylsulfanyl nicotinic acid, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline, bppdc = N,N'-bis(pyridin-3-yppyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide], have been obtained from hydrothermal reactions of zinc(II)/cadmium(H) nitrates with the semi-rigid N-/ S-containing dicarboxylate L, and the two structurally disparate neutral N-donor ligands phen and bppdc. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis has revealed that compound 1 is a one-dimensional (1-D) helical coordination polymer linked by Zn-II atoms and L spacers. Compound 2 features a double-chain structure connected via binuclear Cd-II units and pairs of L linkers. Adjacent chains of 1 and 2 are packed into 3-D supramolecular networks by hydrogen bonds and pi-pi stacking interactions. Compounds 3 and 4 exhibit similar 2-D (4,4)-connected wave-like networks based on linear [M-L], and zigzag [M-bppdc](n) metal-organic chains (M = Zn-II for 3 and Cd-II for 4). The effects of metal ions and N-donor ligands with different coordination characters are discussed. Moreover, the photoluminescence properties and photocatalytic activities of compounds 1-4 were investigated.