Herein, a chiral bispyridyl ligand (L) was
designed
and synthesized using a Schiff base condensation reaction, followed
by a 1,3-H shift. Five complexes, [Zn2
L
2(OAc)4] (1), {[CdLCl2(DMF)]·4H2O}
n
(2), [Cd2
L
2I4]·4H2O (3), {[CdL
2(H2O)2](NO3)2·2CH3OH}
n
(4), and [Hg2
L
2Cl4]·2DMF (5), were synthesized and characterized upon its reaction with
Zn(II), Cd(II), or Hg(II) ions, respectively. X-ray crystallography
shows that the organic compound exists as a racemic ligand with equal
amounts of its R- and S-isomers,
and all of the synthesized complexes exhibit heterochiral self-assembly
via a chiral self-discrimination process. Complexes 1, 3, and 5 exist as centrosymmetric binuclear
metallamacrocycles, while complexes 2 and 4 exist as 1D looped-chain coordination polymers. Inspired by the
assembled structures of the five complexes, I2 adsorption/desorption
measurements for the complexes were carried out. The results show
that complexes 1 and 5 exhibit good adsorption
capacities toward I2 in n-hexane and in
water, respectively.