Extended supramolecular structures derived from metal pseudohalides and 4,4′-bipyridinium derivative: Synthesis, structures and optical properties

•Four novel extended supramolecular structures have been prepared through self-assembly.•They exhibit diverse structures and dimensionalities.•The pseudohalide and cationic ligand may be candidates to form higher dimensional structures.•The optical band gap and photocatalytic properties were also investigated.

Four novel extended supramolecular structures based on pseudohalides (SCN) and the flexible cationic ligand 1,4-bis(4,4′-bipyridinium)butane ditetrafluoroborate (bbpyb), namely [bbpyb][Hg(SCN)4] (1), [Cu2(bbpyb)(SCN)4]n (2), [Ag2(bbpyb)(SCN)4]n (3) and [Cu6(bbpyb)(SCN)8]n (4) have been solvothermally synthesized and characterized by IR spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis(TGA), PXRD, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction in the solid state. Compound 1 is a 0D supramolecular structure consisted of one linear cationic ligand bbpyb2+ and inorganic mononuclear anion [Hg(SCN)4]2−. Compounds 2 and 3 exhibit infinite two-dimensional anionic architecture, which represent the same (6,3) topology. In compound 4, the cationic ligand bbpyb2+ bridge [Cu6(SCN)8] cluster unit to generate a 3D coordination framework. The structural diversities show that the pseudohalides (SCN) and cationic ligand should very likely be excellent candidates to construct higher dimensional extend supramolecular architectures. In addition, the optical band gap and photocatalytic properties of compounds 1–4 were also investigated.

Graphical abstractFour novel extended supramolecular structures have been prepared. They exhibit diverse structures and dimensionalities. The optical band gap and photocatalytic properties were also investigated.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide