Zinc complexes with tricarballylic acid and Lewis bases with zero- and two-dimensional structures

Three ternary zinc complexes of the open chain polycarboxylic acid, tricarballylic (1,2,3-propane-tricarboxylic) acid (PTCH3) have been isolated and characterized with crystallographic and physicochemical techniques. [Zn(PTCH)(phen)(H2O)]2 · 4H2O (1) (where phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) has a unique dinuclear structure, while [Zn(PTCH)(bpy)]n · 3nH2O (2) and [Zn(PTCH)(epy)]n · 4nH2O (3) (where bpy = 4,4′-bipyridine and epy = 1,2-bis(4-pyridine)ethane) have 2D polymeric structures. The bis-deprotonated ligand, in all three complexes, uses for coordination only two oxygen atoms, which belong to the same carboxylate in 1, and to two different carboxylates in 2 and 3.