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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Solid-phase Submonomer Synthesis of Peptoid Polymers and their Self-Assembly into Highly-Ordered Nanosheets
Published on: November 2, 2011
Coordination Polymers Assembled from Flexible Tricarboxylate Linkers: Hydrothermal Synthesis, Structural Diversity,
Wei Dou1, Beining Shi1, Xiaoxiang Fan2
1State Key Laboratory of Natural Product Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The molecular design of coordination polymers (CPs) and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has attracted increasing attention in the areas of inorganic chemistry and functional materials. In this study, a new series of 2D CPs and 3D MOFs was hydrothermally assembled from metal(II) chlorides and 2,2'-((4-carboxy-1,2-phenylene)bis(oxy))diacetic acid (H3cpbda) as a flexible and little-explored tricarboxylate linker. Additionally, several types of aromatic N,N-donor auxiliary ligands were used to promote crystallization, namely, 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), 4,4'-bipyridine (bipy), bis(4-pyridyl)amine (bpa), 1,2-di(4-pyridly)ethylene (dpey), or 1,2-di(4-pyridly)ethane (dpea). The obtained products were fully characterized and identified as [M3(μ6-cpbda)2(phen)2]n·4nH2O (M = Zn (1), Cd (2)), [Co3(μ5-cpbda)2(μ-bipy)2]n·2nH2O (3), [Zn3(μ5-cpbda)2(μ-bipy)2]n (4), [Zn(μ3-cpbda)(Hbpa)]n·4nH2O (5), [Zn4(μ3-cpbda)2(μ-OH)2(μ-dpey)3(H2O)2]n·2nH2O (6), [Co3(μ4-cpbda)2(μ-dpey)3]n·2nH2O (7), and [Ni3(μ4-cpbda)2(μ-dpea)3]n·2nH2O (8). Their structural and topological features were also explored, allowing us to identify a diversity of 2D and 3D coordination networks. Remarkably, Zn-based coordination polymers 5 and 6 revealed a high catalytic activity and reusability in the condensation reaction between benzaldehyde and malononitrile (or ethyl cyanoacetate), leading to almost quantitative product yields (99%) under optimized conditions. The present work contributes to widening the family of CPs/MOFs assembled from flexible polycarboxylate linkers and highlights a promising application of these compounds in heterogeneous catalysis.
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