The current study describes the first in situ synthesis and characterization of a new family of cationic coordination tetrahedra of both the V4F4 and V4E6 type, which are constructed by a new building block based on a trinuclear zirconocene moiety and the dicarboxylate or tricarboxylate anions.

A novel coordination compound, {[Cd(BDC)(Bpybc)(1.5)].10H(2)O}(n), obtained by the reaction of CdCl(2) with 1,1'-bis(4-carboxybenzyl)-4,4'-bipyridinium dichloride (H(2)BpybcCl(2)) and 1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid (H(2)BDC), contains 1D polymeric chains that are comprised of alternating rings and rods and dangling lateral arms. These 1D polymeric motifs are interlaced via rotaxane-like mechanical linkages to give 2D armed-polyrotaxane sheets, which are further mutually polythreaded via pseudorotaxane-like mechanical linkages to form a 3D polypseudorotaxane array. Notably, a sandwich-type donor-acceptor-donor stacking is formed within each ring as a consequence of both types of polythreading in this species, and photoinduced and thermal-induced reduction of bipyridinium occurs with a color change from light yellow to blue.

A series of porous hyper-cross-linked polymers with excellent physiochemical stability have been designed and prepared facilely through template-free Friedel-Crafts alkylation reactions between benzene / biphenyl / 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene as co-condensing rigid aromatic building blocks and 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)benzene or 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)-2,4,6-trimehylbenzene as cross-linkers under the catalysis of anhydrous AlCl3 or FeCl3. The systematic study of gas uptake ability shows that anhydrous AlCl3 is a much more effective catalyst than anhydrous FeCl3. The synthesized polymers are thermally stable and are predominantly microporous with high surface areas up to 1783 m 2 g -1 . In addition, they exhibit high H2 and CO2 uptake capacity/selectivity. Among these materials, C1M3-Al has the highest H2 uptake capacity at 77 K and 1 bar (19.1 mg·g -1 ) and CO2 uptake capacity at 273 K and 1 bar (181 mg·g -1 ); the best CO2/N2 (15/85) selectivity calculated by IAST at 273 K and 1 bar belongs to C1M2-Al (32.3). Moreover, the synthesis route exhibits cost-effective advantages, which are essential for scale-up preparation, thus showing great potential for clean energy applications.