By assembling a tetradentate N-donor ligand tetra(pyridine-4-yl)benzene-1,4-diamine
(TBD) with a copper ion, three novel Cu(I)-based coordination frameworks,
bearing one-, two-, and three-dimensional (3D) architectures, namely,
[Cu2Br2(TBD)·H2O] (1), [Cu2Br2(TBD)] (2), and [CuI(TBD)]
(3), have been synthesized and characterized. Owing to
the different coordination modes of [Cu2Br2]
dinuclear units, compounds 1 and 2 display
distinct structures with double-stranded chains for 1 and 4-connected layers for 2. Compound 3 presents a (3,4)-connected 3D network, which is fabricated from
neutral Cu-TBD layers with the bridging organic ligands. Solid-state
photoluminescence test implies that the three compounds exhibit bright
yellow emissions with the luminescence lifetime at a microsecond scale.
Interestingly, through the alternation of the ratios with compound 3 and blue phosphor, tunable luminescence emissions from yellow
to white light have been achieved. Moreover, the luminescence sensing
ability toward various metal cations was examined on 1. The compound could be competent to serve as a selective fluorescent
probe for the recognition of Fe3+ despite the existence
of other interferences.