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.

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