Synthesis, structures and photocatalytic properties of two new Co(II) coordination polymers based on 5-(benzyloxy)isophthalate ligand

•Two new Co(II) coordination polymers constructed from 5-(benzyloxy)isophthalic acid.•Compound 1 is a 3D complicated framework, and compound 2 is a 1D chain structure.•These two compounds display excellent photocatalytic properties.

Two new Co(II) coordination polymer, namely [Co2(L)2(H2O)]n (1) and [Co(L)(phen)(H2O)]n·xH2O (2) (H2L = 5-(benzyloxy)isophthalic acid, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) have been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis and single crystal X-ray analysis. The molecular structure of 1 contains two Co(II) ions, two L2− ligands and one coordinated water molecule, which further extends into a complicated 3D framework with the tails of L2− ligands filling in the hexagonal channels, and the molecular structure of 2 contains one Co(II) ions, one L2− ligands, one phen ligands, one coordinated water molecule and half of the water molecule of crystallization, which further extends into a 1D chain structure. In addition, photocatalytic investigation on compounds 1 and 2 reveals that they are active catalyst for degradation of methyl blue.