Effect of steric congestion and non-covalent interaction on the self-organization of two isostructural 1D chiral coordination polymers

•Two isostructural homochiral 1D coordination polymers are reported.•Effect of dicyanamide ion on chiral self-recognition and transfer is studied.•Role of steric congestion on homochiral coordination polymers is studied.•Effect of non-covalent interactions on racemic self-assembly is studied.•The isotactic and syndiotactic arrangements of coordination complexes are studied.

Two isostructural 1D chiral coordination polymers namely, [M(L)(N(CN)2)]n have been synthesized using a racemic mixture of chiral tridentate Schiff base ligand, LH (LH = 2-((phenyl(2-pyridyl)methylimino)methyl)phenol), M(II) ions (M = Cu (1), Zn (2)) and dicyanamide ion. Structural characterization reveals that dicyanamide ion links two mononuclear units having same enantiomer of ligand L (either R or S) though it’s end-on-end bridging mode and extends further towards the formation of 1D homochiral self-assembly in a chiral self-recognition manner. The effects of different non-covalent interactions on the arrangement of 1D chiral coordination polymers into 2D sheet have been studied. The results demonstrate the effect of dicyanamide ion, steric congestion and non-covalent interactions on the homochiral self-assembly of the synthesized complexes.

Graphical abstractThe effects of steric congestion and non-covalent interactions in the self-assembly of homochiral 1D coordination polymers are reported.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide