Tuning the entanglement of coordination polymers by controlling the steric hindrance of organic linkers

• Two entangled coordination polymers have been synthesized and characterized.
• The ligands’ steric hindrance to the formation of entangled framework was evaluated.
• The luminescent properties of these compounds were investigated at room temperature.

In this paper, through the adjustment of alkyls attached to fluorene-based dicarboxylic acids, two Cd(II) coordination polymers featuring different entangled structures have been synthesized under the same solvothermal condition, which shows that the rational modulation of organic ligands’ steric hindrance is an effective approach to the construction of novel entangled framework.