Assembly of three cadmium polymers from a newly designed imidazole multi-carboxylate ligand

Three coordination polymers, [Cd(p-CPhH2IDC)(H2O)]n (p-CPhH4IDC = 2-(4-carboxylphenyl)-1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylic acid) (1), [Cd3(p-CPhHIDC)2(H2O)6]n (2), and {[Cd2(p-CPhIDC)(2,2′-bipy)2]·H2O}n (2,2′-bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine) (3), have been hydrothermally synthesized, and structurally characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and further characterized by thermogravimetric and solid-state fluorescence determinations. Polymer 1 presents a 2D doubled-layer architecture containing 1D distorted quadrilateral open channels. Polymer 2 emerges a 1D zigzag chain constructed by parallelogram clusters. Polymer 3 exhibits a net-like layer structure constructed by two types of wavy chains. The coordination features of the ligand p-CPhH4IDC have been discussed as well.