Synthesis, structure and optical limiting effect of a novel inorganic–organic hybrid polymer containing mixed chains of copper(I)/iodine

In this paper, treatment of N-ethyl-benzo[f]quinolium (ebq) iodide and CuI with excess KI afforded an unusual coordination polymer [(ebq)2(Cu3I4)(CuI2)]n (1). 1 crystallizes in tetragonal system, space group P4(2)bc with cell parameters of image, image, image, image, image, image and image. A highly interesting feature of 1 is its presence of mixed types of chains [image and image chain] in one crystal lattice based on supramolecular self-assembly directed by cations. The infinite chains image and image in 1 could be described as the edge-sharing arrangement of CuI4 tetrahedron. Furthermore, IR, EA, UV–Vis, thermal analysis and optical limiting measurements were adopted to characterize polymer 1. The optical limiting experiment shows that the present polymer exhibits a large optical limiting capacity.