Design and structural extension of a supramolecular inclusion-compound host made by the formation of dimers of isonicotinic acid and thiocyanato coordinating bridges.

A new host design for an inclusion compound with a preference for large planar aromatic guest molecules has been proposed. Our host design includes a rectangular cavity made using a long and a short building block based on the concept of supramolecular chemistry. The long building block facilitates the inclusion of large guests, and the short building block prevents the formation of an interpenetrated structure, which is often observed in frameworks with large void spaces. The long building block is made when dimers of 4-pyridinecarboxylic acid (isoH) form through hydrogen bonding between the two carboxylic acid moieties. This isoH dimer can link two transition metal centers using the N atoms at both ends to act as a long building block. For the short building block, the thiocyanato ion was used. This makes a bent bridge between two metal centers to form a 1D double-chain [M(SCN)2]infinity complex. From the self-assembly of isoH, SCN- and Ni2+, a 2D network of [Ni(SCN)2(isoH)2]infinity, in which the 1D [Ni(SCN)2]infinity complexes are linked by the isoH dimers, is built up. The rectangular cavity is formed as a mesh within the 2D network. The crystal of our inclusion compound has a layered structure of 2D networks, and a 1D channel-like cavity penetrating the layered 2D networks is formed where guests may be included. Moreover, our host design has the advantage of easy extension of the host structure. Replacement of isoH with another component and use of three components is possible for making the long building block. In the latter case, a linear spacer having two carboxy groups is inserted into the isoH dimer to form a long building block with a trimer structure. Based on our host design, a series of new inclusion compounds were synthesized. The crystal structures of three compounds were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. These were a biphenyl inclusion compound [Ni(SCN)2(isoH)2].1/2C12H10 (the basic case), a 9,10-dichloroanthracene inclusion compound [Ni(SCN)2(acrylH)2].1/2C14H8Cl2, where isoH is replaced with 3-(4-pyridinyl)-2-propenoic acid (acrylH), and a perylene inclusion compound [Ni(SCN)2(isoH)2(fumaricH2)].1/2C20H12, whose long building block is a trimer inserted with fumaric acid (fumaricH2) as a linear spacer.