Design of scaffold-like metal-organic coordination polymers based on dinuclear zinc(II) carboxylate complexes

Two new scaffold-like metal-organic coordination polymers, [Zn2ndc2bpe]·DMF and [Zn2ndc2dedpbp] ·4DMF (ndc is 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylate, bpe is trans-bis(4-pyridyl)ethylene, and dedpbp is 4,4′-diethynyl-4″,4′″-dipyridylbiphenyl), were synthesized by heating stoichiometric amounts of zinc(II) nitrate, H2ndc, and bpe or dedpbp in DMF. The structures of the polymers were established by X-ray diffraction. Coordination of linear dicarboxylate ligands to zinc cations gives rise to planar square-grid networks, and additional coordination of the bifunctional nitrogen-containing ligands results in the formation of scaffold-like triply interpenetrating structures with a primitive cubic topology.