Solvothermal synthesis, crystal structures and properties of two new magnesium coordination polymers of (l)-malic acid

•Two chiral magnesium coordination polymers were successfully synthesized.•The structures were constructed based on building blocks of 1D inorganic chains.•The complexes show interesting chiral structures and microporous channels.•The two complexes exhibited good luminescence properties.

Two new three dimensional magnesium coordination polymers of formula, [Mg4(HL-MA)2(HCO2)2(OH)2]∙(EtOH)∙2(H2O) (1), and [Mg(HL-MA)(H2O)] (2), (H3L-MA = l-malic acid) have been solvothermally synthesized in order to study the coordination properties of (L)-malic acid and the structural features of the resulting coordination polymers (CPs). The structures of the newly synthesized CPs have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and further characterized by various analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The single crystal structure analysis showed that the complexes, 1 and 2 form three-dimensional frameworks. Topological analysis revealed that the 1 can be described as a new 4-nodal net with Schläfli symbol of {43.62.8}{43}{47.63}{47.65.82.10} and 2 can be described as a ‘sra’ net. The ligand acted as a bi-anionic hepta-dentate and bi-anionic penta-dentate in 1 and 2 respectively. Moreover, the solid-state luminescent spectra of the two Mg(II) complexes indicated that the two complexes emitted their own characteristic sensitized luminescence.

Graphical abstractTwo new chiral magnesium(II) coordination polymers of l-malic acid have been successfully synthesized under solvothermal condition. The resulting materials exhibited interesting chiral structural features and properties.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide