Source of materialThe title compound was prepared under hydrothermal conditions. A mixture of 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane (bpp, 4 mmol), NaOH (1 mmol), Co(ClO 4)2 (2 mmol), and water (12 ml) was sealed in a 25 mL Teflon-lined reactor and heated in an autoclave at 160°C for 72 h. Then the autoclave was slowly cooled to room temperature. The title complex, as red block-shaped crystals, was collected by filtration, washed with water, and dried in air.
DiscussionThe design and construction of new functional solids based on metal-organic frameworks has been extensively studied [1,2]. This is not only due to their structural diversities but also for their potential or practical application in the area of catalysis, gas storage and nonlinear optics [3,4]. In constructing MOFs, flexible ligands are usually selected because they may act as bridging to extend the architecture to 1D chains, 2D layers and 3D networks [5,6]. 1,3-Bis(4-pyridyl)propane, as a very flexible versatile bifunctional ligand, has been frequently used as a spacer for the construction of the polymeric compounds [7,8]. The longer nitrogen-to-nitrogen span in bpp can lead to larger cavities in coordination networks, and different conformations of bpp can result in different extended structures. Up to now, many M(II)-bpp coordination polymers have been synthesized and reported [9,10]. In the title crystal structure, the asymmetric unit consists of one cobalt center bridged by one bpp ligand, one coordinated water molecule, one non-bonded perchlorate ion, one and a half free bpp molecules and one water molecule of crystallization (figure, top). The cobalt ion adopts a distorted octahedron, in which four nitrogen atoms from four bridging bpp ligands occupy the equatorial plane, and two coordinated water molecules occupy the axial positions. The Co1N1 and Co1N2 bond distances are 2.157(2) Å and 2.231(2) Å, respectively. The axial CoO distances have a value of 2.107(2) Å. The CoO and CoN dis-Z. Kristallogr.