Three New Polycatenation Networks Based on 4,4′‐Oxybis(benzoate) and Bis(imidazole) Ligands: Synthesis, Structure and Photoluminescence

In this paper we report three new metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), [Zn(oba)( L1 ) 0.5 (H 2 O)] n ( 1 ), [Zn 2 (oba) 2 ( L2 ) 2 ](H 2 O) 3 ( 2 ) and [Co(oba)( L1 )] n ( 3 ) [oba = 4,4′‐oxybis(benzoate), L1 = 1,4‐bis(imidazol‐1‐ylmethyl)benzene, L2 = 1,4‐bis(imidazol‐1‐yl)benzene] that have been obtained under hydrothermal conditions and characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and elemental analysis (EA). A structural investigation revealed that all three coordination compounds present polycatenation features. Interestingly, 1 shows a rare 1D → 2D structure formed by the catenation of 1D ladders. Both 2 and 3 , however, are unusual cases that have 3D frameworks constructed from 2D 4 4 ‐ sql layers by parallel polycatenation. The photoluminescence properties of 1 and 2 have also been investigated.