Anion-dependent self-assembly of copper coordination polymers based on pyrazole-3,5-dicarboxylate and 1,2-di(4-pyridyl)ethylene

Three Stages of Dynamic Assembly Process of Dipeptide-Based Supramolecular Gel Revealed by In Situ Infrared Spectroscopy

The exploration of short peptide-based assembly is vital for understanding protein-misfolding-associated diseases and seeking strategies to attenuate aggregate formation. While, the molecular mechanism of their structural evolution remains poorly studied in view of the dynamic and unpredictable assembly process. Herein, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, which serves as an in situ and real-time analytical technique, was intelligently employed to investigate the mechanism of phase transition and aggregate formation during the dynamic assembly process of diphenylalanine. Combined with other spectroscopy and electron microscopy technologies, three stages of gel formation and the main driving forces in different stages were revealed. A variety of stoichiometric methods such as continuous wavelet transform, principal component analysis, and two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy techniques were conducted to analyze the original time-dependent IR spectra to obtain detailed information on the changes in the amide bands and hydration layer. The microenvironment of hydrogen bonding among amide bands was significantly changed with the addition of pyridine derivatives, resulting in great differences in the properties of co-assembled gels. This work not only provides a universal analytical way to reveal the dynamic assembly process of dipeptide-based supramolecular gel but also expands their applications in supramolecular regulation and high-throughput screens in situ.

Self-Assembly of 1D Double-Chain and 3D Diamondoid Networks of Lanthanide Coordination Polymers through In Situ-Generated Ligands: High-Pressure CO2 Adsorption and Photoluminescence Properties

Two new lanthanide-based coordination polymers, [Sm2(bzz)(ben)6(H2O)3]·0.5H2O (1) and [Eu(bbz)(ben)3] (2), were synthesized and characterized. The described products were formed from in situ-generated benzoate (ben) and N'-benzoylbenzohydrazide (bbz) ligands, which were the products of transformation of originally added benzhydrazide (bzz) under hydrothermal conditions. Compound 1 exhibits a one-dimensional (1D) double-chain structure built up from the connection of the central Sm3+ ions with a mixture of bzz and ben ligands. On the other hand, 2 features a 3D network with a 4-connected (66) dia topology constructed from dinuclear [Eu2(ben)6] secondary building units and bbz linkers. High-pressure CO2 sorption studies of activated 1 show that maximum uptake increases to exceptionally high values of 376.7 cm3 g-1 (42.5 wt%) under a pressure of 50 bar at 298 K with good recyclability. Meanwhile, 2 shows a typical red emission in the solid state at room temperature with the decay lifetime of 1.2 ms.

A novel series of giant cobalt-calixarene macrocycles: ring-expansion and modulation of pore apertures through recrystallization

The design and synthesis of metallomacrocycles can be quite challenging because the assemblies of such molecular cycles are difficult to control and the products are usually unpredictable. In this work, a novel series of metallomacrocycles, denoted as {Co30-A}, {Co30-B} and {Co32-A} have been synthesized via self-assembly of p-tert-butylthiacalix[4]arene (H4TC4A) and 3,5-pyrazoledicarboxylic acid (H3pdc) with Co2+ ions under solvothermal conditions. Recrystallization of {Co32-A} under different conditions was found to form {Co32-B} and {Co32-C} that have a similar ring structure to that of {Co32-A} but have different molecular packing modes in the lattices, as well as a 40-membered ring {Co40}. These complexes represent the highest-nuclearity metallocalixarene coordination wheels reported to date. Crystallographic studies indicate that all these metallomacrocycles feature wheel-like structures with apertures varing from 11.4 to 20.3 Å. It is noteworthy that {Co32-A} exhibited good efficiency in removing RhB even at low initial concentration (10 ppm) and also excellent adsorption selectivity towards RhB over Na2Fl (RhB = Rhodamine B, Na2Fl = disodium fluorescein). This work not only makes a breakthrough in the synthesis of metallocalixarene macrocycles with high nuclearity and large apertures, but also provides a simple recrystallization approach to realize the ring-expansion and regulation of molecular packing modes of the metallomacrocycles.

Sonochemical synthesis of a trinuclear Cu(ii) complex with open coordination sites for the differentiable optical detection of volatile amines

A discrete trinuclear Cu(ii) complex, namely, [Cu₃(pzdc)₂(dpyam)₂(H₂O)₄] (1) (H₃pzdc = pyrazole-3,5-dicarboxylic acid, dpyam = 2,2′-dipyridylamine) was simply synthesized by the sonochemical process and structurally characterized. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that three adjacent Cu(ii) centers are linked via two bridging pzdc ligands to form a trinuclear Cu(ii) unit. Each trinuclear Cu(ii) unit contains open coordination sites with two trigonal bipyramidal Cu(ii) centers and one elongated octahedral geometry. Moreover, the open coordination site of 1 was occupied by a small molecule, leading to the guest-induced structural transformation with chromism that was verified by FT-IR, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, elemental analysis, PXRD, and SEM techniques. Compound 1 exhibits color change along with structural transformation in methanol media and after the dehydration process. Also, 1 shows different color responses after exposure to different amine vapors. In addition, compound 1 was conveniently deposited onto a filter paper by a sonochemical method used as a portable test strip for the discriminative qualitative detection of amines.

A trinuclear Cu(ii) complex with open coordination sites for the differentiable optical detection of volatile amines.

Effect of pH on the charge-assisted hydrogen-bonded assembly of the anionic [Cu(oxalate)2]2- building unit and N,N'-ditopic cations

By the solvothermal reaction under acidic conditions of Cu(NO₃)₂·3H₂O, Na₂C₂O₄ and the N,N'-ditopic organic coligands 1-(pyridin-4-yl)piperazine (ppz) and 1,2-bis(pyridin-4-yl)ethane (bpa), two novel anionic copper(II) coordination compounds were obtained, namely the one-dimensional coordination polymer catena-poly[4-(pyridin-1-ium-4-yl)piperazin-1-ium [[(oxalato-κ²O¹,O²)copper(II)]-μ-oxalato-κ³O¹,O²:O^1']], {(C₉H₁₅N₃)[Cu(C₂O₄)₂)]}_n or {(H₂ppz)[Cu(C₂O₄)₂]}_n, (I), and the discrete ionic complex 4,4'-(ethane-1,2-diyl)dipyridinium bis(oxalato-κ²O¹,O²)copper(II), (C₁₂H₁₄N₂)[Cu(C₂O₄)₂] or (H₂bpa)[Cu(C₂O₄)₂], (II). The products were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analyses and UV and IR spectroscopic techniques. The [Cu(C₂O₄)₂]^2- units for (I) and (II) are stabilized by H₂ppz²⁺ and H₂bpa²⁺ cations, respectively, via charge-assisted hydrogen bonds. Also, a study of the pH-controlled synthesis of this system shows that (I) was obtained at pH values of 2-4. When using bpa, a two-dimensional square-grid network of [Cu(C₂O₄)(bpa)]_n was obtained at a pH of 4. This indicates that the pH of the reaction also plays a key role in the structural assembly and coordination abilities of oxalate and N,N'-ditopic coligands.