Two interesting homochiral coordination polymers based
on in situ
produced zinc(II)/cadmium(II) clusters, namely, {[Zn4(L)2(OH)2(H2O)3]·3H2O}
n
(1) and {[Cd3(L)2(H2O)4]·4H2O}
n
(2), were hydro/solvothermally
synthesized by the reaction of the designed enantiomerically pure
chiral ligand (S)-5-((2-carboxy-5-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)methyl)isophthalic
acid (H3L) with Zn(OH)2 or Cd(OH)2. Complex 1 is a three-dimensional (3D) metallohelicate
constructed from novel six-fold helical chain substructures based
on tetranuclear zinc(II) clusters. Complex 2 is a 2D
double-layered metallohelicate containing interesting four-fold helical
chain substructures based on trinuclear cadmium(II) clusters. Topologically, 1 can be described as an interesting (3,4,7)-connected net
with a point symbol of (42·6)(42·64)(44·615·82), while 2 can be reducible to a (3,6)-connected kgd net. Thermal analyses
disclosed that the dehydrated frameworks of 1 and 2 had excellent thermostability. Clearly, the in situ produced
zinc(II)/cadmium(II) clusters are of great significance not only in
the formation of novel helical frameworks of 1 and 2 but also in the excellent thermostability of their frameworks.
Furthermore, their solid-state optical properties, including CD spectra
and nonlinear optical and luminescence properties, were also carried
out. In particular, 1 and 2 show remarkable
second harmonic generation with efficiencies about 1.15 and 0.95 times
that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate, respectively. Even more important,
the high thermostability and remarkable second harmonic generation
response of colorless transparent crystalline materials 1 and 2 are meaningful for further exploring their optical
applications.