Nitroaromatic detecting zinc cyclohexyldicarboxylate coordination polymers with a long spanning dipyridyl tethering ligand

Abstract Four new divalent zinc coordination polymers containing a dianionic cyclohexyldicarboxylate and the long-spanning pillaring dipyridyl ligand bis(4-pyridylmethyl)piperazine (bpmp) have been prepared and structurally characterized via single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Significant structural and topological diversity across the series is evident. {[Zn 2 ( cis -12cdc) 2 (bpmp)]·6H 2 O} n ( 1 , cis -12cdc =  cis -1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylate) shows a coordination polymer layer motif with embedded paddlewheel {Zn 2 (OCO) 4 } dinuclear units and T6(4)4(4) classification water tapes. Using cis -1,2-cyclohex-4-enedicarboxylate ( cis -12chedc) afforded [Zn 2 ( cis -12chedc) 2 (bpmp)(H 2 O) 2 ] n ( 2 ), which manifests a simple yet unusual (6)(6 4 8.10) topology. [Zn 2 ( cis -13cdc) 2 (bpmp)] n ( 3 , cis -13cdc =  cis -1,3-cyclohexanedicarboxylate) displays sawtooth (4,4) coordination polymer layers, while [Zn 2 ( trans -14cdc) 2 (bpmp)] n ( 4 , trans -14cdc =  trans -1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate) shows a 3D system of coordination polymer networks with 3-fold interpenetrated 4 12 6 3 pcu topology. The layered phases 1 – 3 showed capability for the detection of small quantities of nitrobenzene in ethanol suspension.