We report the synthesis and in-depth characterization
of three
zirconium chelidamates, a molecular complex (H8C2N)2[Zr(HL)3] (1), a porous metal-containing
hydrogen-bonded organic framework (M-HOF) [Zr(H2O)2(HL)2]·xH2O (2), and a metal–organic framework (MOF) (H8C2N)2–2n
[Zr(H
n
L)2]·x solvent
(0 ≤ n ≤ 1) (3) using
chelidamic acid (H3L, H5C7NO5, 4-hydroxypyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid) as the ligand (H8C2N+ = dimethylammonium). High-throughput
investigations of the system Zr4+/H3L/HCl/DMF/H2O were carried out, which resulted in highly crystalline compounds.
The crystal structures of 1 and 2 were determined
by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Single-crystal three-dimensional
(3D) electron diffraction and Rietveld refinements of powder X-ray
diffraction (PXRD) data had to be used to elucidate the crystal structure
of 3 since only very small single crystals of about 500
nm in diameter could be obtained. In all structures, chelidamate ions
act as anionic palindromic pincer ligands, and in 3,
a coordinative bond is additionally formed by the aryloxy group. While
dense packing of the molecular complexes is found in 1, hydrogen bonding of the molecular complexes in 2 leads
to a porous network that shows flexibility depending on the water
content. The three-dimensional framework structure of the Zr-MOF 3 contains a mononuclear inorganic building unit (IBU), which
is very uncommon in Zr-MOF chemistry. The three compounds are stable
in several organic solvents, and thermal decomposition starts above
280 °C. While the hydrogen-bonded framework 2 is
only porous toward water with a water uptake of almost 3.75 mol mol–1 at p/p
0 = 0.9, 3 is porous against N2, CO2, methanol, ethanol, and water with a specific Brunauer–Emmett–Teller
(BET) surface area of a
S,BET = 410 m2 g–1 derived from the N2 adsorption
isotherm. Stability upon water adsorption covering 10 cycles between
0.5% < p/p
0 < 90%
for 3 is also demonstrated.