Two types of rare earth–organic frameworks constructed by racemic tartaric acid

Hydrothermal reactions of rare earth oxides with racemic tartaric acid (H2tar) yielded 7 rare earth(III) MOFs with general formulas [R2(tar)3(H2O)2]n (R=Y (1), Sm (4), Eu (5), Tb (6), Dy (7)) and [R2(tar)2(C2O4)(H2O)2]n·4nH2O (R=La (2), Nd (3)). X-ray powder diffraction analysis and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveal that they present two different structural types. MOFs 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are isostructural and crystallize in the orthorhombic non-centrosymmetric space group Iba2, and feature unusual fsc-3,4-Iba2 topology. MOFs 2 and 3 are isostructural and crystallize in monoclinic P21/c space group and display rare fsx-4,5-P21/c topology containing hydrophilic channels bounded by triple helical chains along a axis. MOFs 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 exhibit intense lanthanide characteristic photoluminescence at room temperature.