Syntheses, structures and properties of silver(I) complexes with flexible 1,3,5-tris(pyridylmethoxyl)benzene ligands

Five new silver(I) complexes [Ag2(L2)2](BF4)2·CH3CN·CH3OH (1), [Ag(L2)(CF3SO3)] (2), [Ag(L3)]ClO4·CH3OH (3), [Ag2(L3)2](CF3SO3)2·CH3CN·CH3OH·H2O (4) and [Ag(L3)]PF6·2CH3CN (5) [L2=1,3,5-tris(2-pyridylmethoxyl)benzene, L3=1,3,5-tris(3-pyridylmethoxyl)benzene] were synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. In complexes 1–5, ligands L2 and L3 show different conformations and act as three-connectors, while the Ag(I) atom serves as three-connecting node to result in the formation of 2D and 3D frameworks. Complexes 1 and 2 with different counteranions have similar 2D network structure with the same (4,82) topology. Complex 3 has a 3D structure with (10,3)-a topology while complexes 4 and 5 have the same 2D (6,3) topological structure. The results showed that the structure of organic ligands and counteranions play subtle but important role in determining the structure of the complexes. In addition, the photoluminescence and anion-exchange properties of the complexes were investigated in the solid state at room temperature.