Spontaneous resolution of non-centrosymmetric coordination polymers of zinc(II) with achiral imidazole-biphenyl-carboxylate ligands

Abstract A convenient synthesis and a full characterization of imidazole- and benzimidazole-biphenyl-carboxylic acid ligands and two zinc coordination polymers are presented. The crystal structure of two precursors 1-(4-iodo-phenyl)- 1H -imidazole ( 1 ), 1-(4-iodophenyl)-1 H -benzo[ d ]imidazole ( 2 ), of 4′-(1 H -benzo[ d ]imidazol-1-yl)biphenyl-4-carboxylic acid ( HL2 ), as bimodal linker and of two coordination polymers [Zn(L1) 2 ] and [Zn 2 (L2) 2 (Ac) 2 ] , have been determined by X-ray crystallography. Compounds 1 and 2 exhibit a supramolecular crystal structure consolidated by a system of π-π and C-H⋯π interactions, respectively. The Zn atoms of the same absolute configuration in [Zn(L1) 2 ] and [Zn 2 (L2) 2 (Ac) 2 ] are assembled into a homochiral two-dimensional (4, 2) coordination network and a one-dimensional coordination polymeric double strand, respectively.