Coordination polymers from bent ligands or how to obtain rare topologies with simple linkers and nodes

Abstract Five Zn(II)/Cd(II) coordination polymers, namely, [Cd 2 (bdc) 2 (bmis) 2 ] ( 1 ), [Cd 2 (bpdc) 2 (bmis) 2 ] ( 2 ), [Cd 3 (btb) 2 (bmis) 2 ]·5DMF ( 3 ), [Zn 2 (2,6-ndc) 2 (bmis) 2 ] ( 4 ) and [Zn(sdc)(bmis)] 2 · 3H 2 O ( 5 ) {bmis = bis(4-(2′-methylimidazol)phenyl)sulfone, H 2 bdc = 1,4-benzenedicaroboxylic acid, 2,6-H2ndc = naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylic acid, H 2 sdc = 4,4′-sulfonyldibenzoic acid, H 2 bpdc = biphenyl-4,4′-dicarboxylic acid and H 3 btb = 4,4′,4′’-benzene-1,3,5-triyl-tribenzoic acid} have been synthesized and structurally characterized. Compound 1 features a rare self-catenated motif 4T19 with high topological density (TD10 = 2318) and very complicated ring-catenations. Compound 2 presents an unusual highly catenated mode of 4-fold interpenetration of dia networks. Compound 3 shows a first example of parallel polycatenation for highly coordinated 2D 3,10L3 nets. Compound 4 exhibits a rare type of 3-fold interpenetration of dia networks. Compound 5 shows a typical pattern of parallel polycatenation of sql networks. In addition, thermal stability and optical properties have been studied in detail for the five synthesized compounds.