Self-assembly of a novel 2D network polymer: Syntheses, characterization, crystal structure and properties of a four-tin-nuclear 36-membered diorganotin(IV) macrocyclic carboxylate

Abstract The novel macrocyclic complex (n-Bu 2 SnL) 4 ·2C 6 H 6 1 (LH 2  = naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid, C 6 H 6  = benzene) has been synthesized by the reaction of di-n-butyltin oxide and rigid naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analyse shows that complex 1 has a centrosymmetric tetranuclear diorganotin dicarboxylate with 36-membered macrocycle, which is formed by n-Bu 2 Sn and ligand alternately linking. All four Sn atoms are hexacoordinated, and the coordination environment can be considered as a skew-trapezoidal bipyramidal with an anisobidentate coordination mode of the carboxylate groups. Luminescent property study of complex 1 has shown that the fluorescent peak was blue-shifted and the fluorescent intensity strengthened markedly compared with ligand. Pilot studies indicated that complex 1 has shown good antitumor activities. This complex 1 is likely to serve as a new model for further investigation on the structure–antitumor activity relationship.