Syntheses, structures and catalytic properties of chiral Co(II) coordination polymers based on (R)-4-(4-(1-carboxyethoxy)phenoxy)benzoic acid

To investigate the construction of novel chiral coordination polymers and the effect of different substituents on the ligands, three complexes, namely [Co(L)(bimb)]·EtOH·H2O [bimb = 4,4′-bis((1H-imidazol-1-yl)methyl)-biphenyl, L = (R)-4-(4-(1-carboxyethoxy)phenoxy)-3-fluorobenzoic acid (1); L = (R)-4-(4-(1-carboxyethoxy)phenoxy)-3-chlorobenzoic acid (2); L = (R)-4-(4-(1-carboxyethoxy)phenoxy)-3-nitroaniline acid (3)], have been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by IR, elemental analyses, thermogravimetric analysis, solid state circular dichroism (CD), powder and single-crystal X-ray diffractions. Structure analysis indicates that complexes 1–3 are isomorphic, featuring two-dimensional (2D) 2-fold interpenetrated sq1 structures. In addition, their second harmonic generation efficiency and catalytic activity for the aldol reaction were investigated.

Graphical abstractA series of chiral coordination polymers exhibit second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency and asymmetrical catalytic properties toward aldol reactions.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide