Abstract:Two new supramolecular architectures, namely, [Cd(L 1 ) 2 (H 2 O)] n (1) and [Ni(L 2 ) 2 (H 2 O)] n (2), were synthesized by the reaction of corresponding metal salts of CdCl 2 ·2.5H 2 O and NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O with 2-(1H-imidazol-4-yl)benzoic acid (HL 1 ) and 3-(1H-imidazol-4-yl)benzoic acid (HL 2 ) respectively, and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Both HL 1 and HL 2 ligands are deprotonated to be L 1 -and L 2 -anions that coordinate with Cd(II) and Ni(II) atoms to form two-dimensional (2D) layer structure. Topologically, complex 1 is a 2D network with (4, 4) sql topology, while 2 is a typical 6 3 -hcb topology net. Complex 1 exhibits intense light blue emission in the solid state at room temperature.