Investigations of organic–inorganic hybrid materials: Ligand influences on the structures of copper-vanadium oxide materials

•Hydrothermal syntheses of three compounds of the VxOy/Cu/imine family.•Structural influences of various imine ligands on bimetallic oxide materials.•Identification of recurring vanadate clusters and chains as building units.•Copper(II)-imine secondary building units as structural determinants.

Hydrothermal synthesis was exploited to provide three compounds of the VxOy/Cu/imine family. Compound 1, [{Cu2(2,2′-dpam)4}V4O12] is molecular, while [{Cu2(OH)(o-phen)2}V3O9] (2) and [{Cu2(4,4′-bpy)3(H2O)2}V4O12]·5H2O (3·5H2O) are one-dimensional and three-dimensional, respectively. The copper-imine components are shown to be critical structural determinants that assume charge-compensating and space-filling roles, as well as providing ligand geometric and steric constrains, as well as flexible metal coordination geometry.

Graphical abstractHydrothermal reactions provided three compounds of the VxOy/Cu/imine ligand family. The structure of the three-dimensional [{Cu2(4,4′-bpy)3(H2O)2}V4O12] is shown.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide