Sodium-Mediated Self-Assembly: Three Novel 2D Coordination Aggregates of 1,4,7-Triazacyclononane-N,N′,N"-tripropionate

Three types of Na+-mediated hybrid transition metal-alkali complexes possessing special architectures with molecular formulas of [Na(H2O)(3)(mu-L)Mn](MnL)(ClO4)(3)center dot 9H(2)O center dot(2H(3)O(+)) (2), [Na5Mn2(mu-L)(2)](ClO4)(5)(H2O)(6) (3) and [Na(NiL)(2)](ClO4)(2)center dot 5H(2)O(3H(3)O(+)) (4) (H3L = 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-N,N',N ''-tripropionic acid) were self-assembled from a reaction system containing transition metal, alkali metal and H3L, and were isolated under different crystallization conditions. In these complexes, [ML] units were connected by Na+ ions to form varied 2D layer structures. Na+ ions act as templates for inducing the organization of [ML] moieties into respective special architectures in different fashions. As a comparison, a mononuclear complex [MnL](2)[Mn(H2O)(6)](ClO4)(3)center dot 8H(2)O (1) has been isolated without Na+ ions in the reaction system. This fact proved that sodium ions play a vital role in the assembly procedure. These four complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.