Directed assembly of dinuclear and mononuclear copper(II)-carboxylates into infinite 1-D motifs using isonicotinamide as a high-yielding supramolecular reagent

Isonicotinamide has been employed as a supramolecular reagent in the synthesis of five Cu(II) complexes, tetrakis(µ-acetato-O,Oʹ)bis (isonicotinamide-N)dicopper(II) acetonitrile; trans-diaquabis(2-fluorobenzoato-O)-bis(isonicotinamide-N)copper(II), bis{bis(µ2-acetato-O) -acetic acid-O-bis(isonicotinamide-N)copper(II)} bis(methanol), bis(acetato-O)-acetic acid-O-bis(isonicotinamide-N)copper(II) acetic acid, bis(2-fluorobenzoato-O)-2-fluorobenzoic acid-O-bis(isonicotinamide-N)copper(II). The crystal structure determination of these compounds demonstrate that an effective supramolecular reagent can be combined with very different (chemically and structurally) inorganic building blocks and still create a family of inorganic-organic hybrid materials that all display the same principal supramolecular motifs; infinite 1-D chains. This consistency (which can be equated with a high supramolecular synthetic ʹyieldʹ) has been achieved in the presence of several potentially disruptive (in a structural sense) molecules, e.g. water, methanol, and acetic acid. This illustrates that flexible or unpredictable coordination chemistry does not, in itself, necessarily prevent supramolecular synthesis using a reliable supramolecular reagent, in this case the structurally bifunctional isonicotinamide ligand.