Fm. Tabellion et al., A novel, tunable manganese coordination system based on a flexible "spacer" unit: Noncovalent templation effects, J AM CHEM S, 123(48), 2001, pp. 11982-11990
The reaction of bis(hexafluoroacetylacetonato)manganese(II) trihydrate (2),
an similar to 90 degrees corner unit, with flexible linking unit 4,4'-trim
ethylenedipyridine (1) allows for the potential formation of three differen
t types of solid-state coordination species: infinite helical polymers, clo
sed dimeric systems, and infinite one-dimensional polymers. While the un-te
mplated starting material is known to give a coordination helix, the other
two possible species can be realized through the selective use of a variety
of simple, organic guests: toluene (3), diphenylmethane (4), cis-stilbene
(5), 1,3-diphenylpropane (6), benzyl alcohol (7), nitrobenzene (8), and cya
nobenzene (9). When solutions of I and 2 are crystallized in the presence o
f all of these clathrates, the dimeric macrocycles result in all cases, exc
ept for that of 6, in which a syndiotactic, wedge-shaped polymer forms. Emp
loying a linker that is less rigid than is typically used in crystal engine
ering, such as 1, enables the nucleophilic donor subunit to be more than ju
st a simple "spacer", instead making it an essential, tunable component in
the overall crystal lattice. In so doing, a great deal of molecular "inform
ation" is lost, but this is compensated for by an in-depth investigation in
to the weaker host-guest and/or guest-guest interactions, such as nonclassi
cal hydrogen bonding and an assortment of hydrophobic interactions, present
in the various systems.