Coordination polymers of Cu(II) and Cd(II) with bifunctional chelates of the type dipicolylamino-alkylcarboxylate, (NC5H4CH2)2N(CH2)nCO2H (n = 1, 2, 3 and 4)

A series of bifunctional chelates of the type dipicolylamino-alkylcarboxylate (NC₅H₄CH₂)₂N(CH₂)_nCO₂H (n = 1-4; HL¹-HL⁴, respectively) has been prepared. Reactions of the ligands in aqueous methanol/N,N-dimethylformamide with the appropriate Cu(II) salts yielded the compounds CuL¹](NO₃)·H₂O (1·H₂O), CuL²(H₂O)]BF₄·H₂O (2·H₂O), Cu(HL³)(SO₄)]₂ (3) and CuL⁴(NO₃)]·MeOH (4·MeOH). While compounds 1, 2 and 4 are one-dimensional, the detailed connectivities within the chains are quite distinct, depending on factors such as alkyl chain length and ligation of aqua ligands or anionic components. In contrast to 1, 2 and 4, the structure of 3 is molecular, a binuclear assembly of edge-sharing Cu(II) ‘4+2’ distorted octahedra. The Cd(II) species, {CdL²}₂(SO₄)]·4H₂O (5·4H₂O), prepared from HL² and CdSO₄·nH₂O in aqueous methanol/N,N-dimethylformamide, is two-dimensional, with a network constructed from binuclear units of seven coordinate Cd(II), , linked through bridging SO₄²⁻ groups to produce an assembly of linked hexagonal rings {CdL²}₂(SO₄)]₆.