Chiral Metallocycles Templated Novel Chiral Water Frameworks

An intentionally synthesized chiral terpyridyl ligand S-2(4-(2,6-di(pyridin-2-yl)pyridin-4-yl)-benzylamino)propanoic acid (H2L) was used to construct two chiral NiII complexes, [Ni2(HL)2(N3)(H2O)](N3)·19H2O (1) and [Ni2(HL)2(N3)2]·7H2O (2). Both complexes are dinuclear metallocyclic complexes. The monoanionic form (HL)− of the chiral ligand coordinates to the metal centers in a bichelating antiparallel fashion to form the metallomacrocycles where the chiral metallocycles Ni2(HL)2 template the formation of a novel chiral 3D zeolite-like water framework with nanometer cages trapping the metallocycles or anchor chiral water chains in the 1D channels of a resulting chiral 3D supermolecule, respectively.