Structural Diversification of Light‐Metal Coordination Polymers Using 4‐(Methylsulfonyl)benzoate with a Charge‐Polarized Neutral Methylsulfonyl Coordination Moiety

We attempted the synthesis and crystallographic characterization of light‐metal coordination polymers (CPs) using a 4‐(methylsulfonyl)benzoate (msbza – ) ligand with a charge‐polarized neutral methylsulfonyl coordination moiety, in order to diversify the limited structures of light‐metal CPs, as compared with heavy‐metal CPs. As expected from the results of DFT calculations, all of the obtained CPs {three‐dimensional (3D) [Mg 2 Na 2 (msbza) 6 (H 2 O) 3 ] n ( 1 ), two‐dimensional (2D) [KH(msbza) 2 ] n ( 2 ) and 2D [Na(msbza)] n ( 3 )} exhibited coordination of the methylsulfonyl moiety to light‐metal cations, in addition to coordination of the carboxylate. These structural features suggest that the use of a neutral methylsulfonyl coordination site is a powerful tool for the structural diversification of light‐metal CPs. In addition, the 3D CP 1 , with the rare and unique tetranuclear Mg 2 Na 2 secondary building unit, showed an unprecedented single‐crystal‐to‐single‐crystal transformation via the low‐crystalline state.