A novel three-dimensional copper(I) cyanide coordination polymer constructed from various bridging ligands: synthesis, crystal structure and characterization.

The cyanide ligand can act as a strong σ-donor and an effective π-electron acceptor that exhibits versatile bridging abilities, such as terminal, μ2-C:N, μ3-C:C:N and μ4-C:C:N:N modes. These ligands play a key role in the formation of various copper(I) cyanide systems, including one-dimensional (1D) chains, two-dimensional (2D) layers and three-dimensional (3D) frameworks. According to the literature, numerous coordination polymers based on terminal, μ2-C:N and μ3-C,C,N bridging modes have been documented so far. However, systems based on the μ4-C:C:N:N bridging mode are relatively rare. In this work, a novel cyanide-bridged 3D CuI coordination framework, namely poly[(μ2-2,2'-biimidazole-κ2N3:N3')(μ4-cyanido-κ4C:C:N:N)(μ2-cyanido-κ2C:N)dicopper(I)], [Cu2(CN)2(C6H6N4)]n, (I), was synthesized hydrothermally by reaction of environmentally friendly K3[Fe(CN)6], CuCl2·2H2O and 2,2'-biimidazole (H2biim). It should be noted that cyanide ligands may act as reducing agents to reduce CuII to CuI under hydrothermal conditions. Compound (I) contains diverse types of bridging ligands, such as μ4-C:C:N:N-cyanide, μ2-C:N-cyanide and μ2-biimidazole. Interestingly, the [Cu2] dimers are bridged by rare μ4-C:C:N:N-mode cyanide ligands giving rise to the first example of a 1D dimeric {[Cu2(μ4-C:C:N:N)]n+}n infinite chain. Furthermore, adjacent dimer-based chains are linked by μ2-C:N bridging cyanide ligands, generating a neutral 2D wave-like (4,4) layer structure. Finally, the 2D layers are joined together via bidentate bridging H2biim to create a 3D cuprous cyanide network. This arrangement leads to a systematic variation in dimensionality from 1D chain→2D sheet→3D framework by different types of bridging ligands. Compound (I) was further characterized by thermal analysis, solid-state UV-Vis diffuse-reflectance and photoluminescence studies. The solid-state UV-Vis diffuse-reflectance spectra show that compound (I) is a wide-gap semiconductor with band gaps of 3.18 eV. The photoluminescence study shows a strong blue-green photoluminescence at room temperature, which may be associated with metal-to-ligand charge transfer.