How the Organic Moiety Drives the Coordination Chemistry of Metal Phosphonates: The First Enantiomerically Pure Zinc Phosphonate

The first enantiomerically pure metallophosphonate, (R)-Zn[O3PCH2P(O)(CH3)(C6H5)]·H2O has been prepared. The layered arrangement in this compound is drastically different from that observed in the racemic series; this observation gives clear evidence of the critical role played by the organic moiety that fully drives the coordination chemistry of phosphonic acids with transition metals.