Metal Chalcogenide Imidazolate Frameworks with Hybrid Intercluster Bridging Mode and Unique Interrupted Topological Structure

Constructing a hybrid connection mode between cluster-based building blocks is of particular importance in the pursuit of fascinating framework structures. Reported here are two new metal chalcogenide imidazolate frameworks (SCIF-11 and SCIF-12) with a hybrid intercluster bridging mode and a unique interrupted topological structure. SCIF-11 has a typical dia topology with a T3-InS supertetrahedral cluster as the node and an imidazolate (IM) ligand as the linker, but it for the first time combines two kinds of intercluster connecting modes: T3–S–T3 and T3–IM–T3. Interestingly, SCIF-12 composed of T4-CdInS supertetrahedral clusters and IM ligands possesses a unique 3,4-connected interrupted framework with ins topology, with this being the first case in the family of cluster-based metal chalcogenide frameworks. This work provides a new strategy on enriching the intercluster bridging modes and topological types of metal chalcogenide frameworks.