What is the most significant result of this study?We demonstrated the isolation of emissive zwitterions that are intermediates in the metal-organic framework assembly process. These simple zwitterions are structurally interesting (for another paper on the isolation of transition-metal-based zwitterions, see: RSC Adv. 2015, 5,4 2978). We also showed, for the first time, that pyridine alcohol/carboxylate hybrid ligands are suitable for construction of apotentially diverse class of porous materials.

A series of FeL3 complexes of dipyridyl β-diketones were structurally characterized and their catalytic properties investigated.