Synthesis and characterization of new inorganic-organic coordination polymers

Synthesis and exploration of new organic-inorganic hybrid materials (“coordination polymers”) is a relatively new research area that has evolved rapidly in the last several years. Coordination polymers are composed of an inorganic moiety (metal center) linked into an infinite polymeric array by an organic moiety (ligand). Alongside tremendous structural variety, these compounds often possess porous frameworks with voids of different shapes and sizes, and can play important roles in many fields, e.g. selective molecular absorption, catalysis or ion exchange. Meanwhile they can exhibit interesting magnetic and optical properties. This thesis details the synthesis and crystal structures of several novel coordination polymers. Part One focuses on the use of N,N′-bidentate ligands as connecting units, with emphasis on new fluorescent and chiral ligands employed for the construction of one-dimensional fluorescent triple-helical polymers and two-dimensional porous structures with large square channels. Part Two concerns the development of a two-step metal-containing building block approach employed in the synthesis of several new structurally diverse mixed-metal and mixed-valent coordination polymers based on the versatile exodentate ligand 2-pyrazinecarboxylic acid and its derivatives.