Themed collection International Year of Crystallography Celebration: Asia-Pacific

Welcome to this CrystEngComm themed issue celebrating the 2014 International Year of Crystallography in the Asia-Pacific region.

We present an overview of new series of halogen-bridged mixed-valence ladder materials with even numbers of legs.

Subtle difference in synthesis conditions has resulted in a family of zinc metal–organic framework polymorphs containing anthracene tetracarboxylates.

The initial pH of the suspension was found to determine whether the porous STA-16(Co) phase or a non-porous Co(II)-phosphonate pillared layer structure was formed.

Reported here is a new Cd^II-based metal–organic framework (MOF), ROD-8, based on the rod secondary building unit (SBU) and tetratopic linker 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene.

A nitro-decorated and highly porous metal–organic framework with NbO topology was reported, exhibiting good adsorption selectivity of CO₂/CH₄ (8) and CO₂/N₂ (24) at 273 K and 1 bar, high methane total uptake of 184 cm³ cm⁻³ at 290 K and 35 bar.

Six lanthanide–organic frameworks with diverse structural motifs are constructed and their photoluminescence behavior is notably dependent on the structural characteristics.

Isomorphous Ln-MOFs with a rare (10,3)-d network were assembled from a dual functional ligand which sensitizes Ln-based luminescence, achieving high quantum yield for Tb-MOF.

Five Ag^I coordination polymers based on cyanobenzyl-functionalised piperazines are reported and structurally analysed.

A new di-topic hybrid ligand incorporating terpy/dpa domains and the X-ray structures of five of its metal complexes are presented.

Two synthon polymorphs of 1 : 1 co-crystals of 5-fluorouracil and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid were synthesized, and the crystal structures were determined.

Five Cd(II) coordination polymers based on 2,3′,5,5′-biphenyltetracarboxylic acid and different bis(imidazole) ligands have been synthesized.

A series of MOFs based on a semi-rigid bifunctional ligand and N-donor bridging ligands have been prepared and their properties have been studied.

Four cluster-containing highly connected coordination networks have been prepared under hydrothermal conditions, and their photoluminescence has been investigated.

A series of lanthanide coordination polymers: {[Ln₂(BPT)₂(DMF)(H₂O)₃]∙2DMF∙3H₂O}_n [Ln = Ce (1), Pr (2) and Eu (3)], {[Ln₂(BPT)₂(DMA)₂(H₂O)₃]∙0.5DMA∙2.5H₂O}_n [Ln = La (4), Sm (5), Eu (6) and Tb (7)] and {[Ln(BPT)(DMSO)₂]∙H₂O}_n [Ln = Sm (8) and Nd (9)] have been constructed by biphenyl -3, 4’, 5-tricarboxylate (H₃BPT).

Two isostructural cyanide-bridged bimetallic coordination polymers with a 3D doubly interpenetrated Hoffman-like network exhibit complete two-step spin-crossover behaviours.

The diverse structures of coordination assemblies based on 5-methylnicotinate can be finely controlled by metal centers and the metal-dependent anion effect.

Nickel-based supramolecular compounds exhibit interesting guest dependent dielectric behaviour and high thermal stability. This study serves as a motivation to expand our research to create both high and low-κ materials with a judicious selection of guest molecules.

DMSO-O(lone pair)⋯π(arene), DMSO-S(lone pair)⋯π(arene) and SO⋯π(arene) interactions are found in DMSO solvates.

A strategy to covalently connect 2D MOFs by ligand design is reported that yields 3D MOFs topologically-related to the 2D structures without the need for a second ‘pillaring link’.

Six fascinating coordination polymers (CPs) showed good photocatalytic activities for the degradation of methylene blue (MB).

The reactions of a Zn(II) ion with ligands containing two 1,3-benzene dicarboxylate residues resulted in isoreticular MOFs based on a rhombic dodecahedral MOP, in which the MOP was built using [Zn₂(COO)₄] clusters as a 4-c SBU and [Zn₂(COO)₃] clusters as a 3-c SBU.

Seven M(II) coordination polymers were prepared and the photocatalytic activities of some of them were explored.

Coordination polymers formed from copper iodide and four isomeric dipyridyl ketone oxime ligands showed the importance the oxime–oximato bridge on the formation of mixed valence Cu(I)/Cu(II) polymers.

Investigation of the electronic and spectral properties of a redox-active Mn²⁺ coordination framework revealed the accessibility of the oxidised state of the framework upon oxidation.

Three new metal–organic frameworks with different topologies were synthesized and characterized. The Co(II) framework shows selective and hysteretic sorption of carbon dioxide.

Seven types of different Zn(TPHAP) coordination networks were prepared thanks to the excellent multi-interactivity of TPHAP via weak intermolecular interactions.

Combining pyridyl-dicarboxyl ligands and the classic Cu₂(RCOO)₄(py)₂, three new flexible porous coordination polymers with 3D (3,6)-connected rtl, eea and pyr networks have been constructed and characterized.

Silver ethynediide complexes feature infinite chains composed of C₂@Ag_n units bridged into two- or three-dimensional coordination networks by dicyanobenzene derivatives.