Synthesis, structure and fluorescence of novel cadmium(II) and silver(I) complexes with in situ ligand formation of 1-(5-tetrazolyl)-4-(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene

Hydrothermal reactions of cadmium(II) or silver(I) salt, NaN3, 4-(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzonitrile (IBN) yield three coordination complexes, [Cd(L)2(H2O)2]·3H2O (1), [Cd3(L)5(OH)] (2) and [Ag2(L)2] (3) where HL=1-(5-tetrazolyl)-4-(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene. The crystal structure analysis revealed that 1 has 1D hinged-chain structure containing 24-membered ring with a Cd···Cd intra-chain distance of 13.18 Å, while 2 is 1D ladder-like chain with Cd3O core. However, the complex 3 is a 3D 4-connected framework with Schläfli symbol of (42·63·8)(43·62·8). The L− ligand was found to show four different coordination modes in 1–3, as 2-, 3- and 4-connector, respectively. The results indicate that the coordination modes of the ligand and metal centers with different coordination geometry have great influence on the structures of the complexes. In addition, the photoluminescence of the complexes were studied in the solid state at room temperature.