Abstract: | Two new coordination polymers (CPs) formed from 5‐iodobenzene‐1,3‐dicarboxylic acid (H2iip) in the presence of the flexible 1,4‐bis(1H‐imidazol‐1‐yl)butane (bimb) auxiliary ligand, namely polyμ2‐1,4‐bis(1H‐imidazol‐1‐yl)butane‐κ2N3:N3′](μ3‐5‐iodobenzene‐1,3‐dicarboxylato‐κ4O1,O1′:O3:O3′)cobalt(II)], Co(C8H3IO4)(C10H14N4)]n or Co(iip)(bimb)]n, (1), and polyμ2‐1,4‐bis(1H‐imidazol‐1‐yl)butane‐κ2N3:N3′](μ2‐5‐iodobenzene‐1,3‐dicarboxylato‐κ2O1:O3)zinc(II)] trihydrate], {Zn(C8H3IO4)(C10H14N4)]·3H2O}n or {Zn(iip)(bimb)]·3H2O}n, (2), were synthesized and characterized by FT–IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), solid‐state UV–Vis spectroscopy, single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis and powder X‐ray diffraction analysis (PXRD). The iip2? ligand in (1) adopts the (κ1,κ1‐μ2)(κ1, κ1‐μ1)‐μ3 coordination mode, linking adjacent secondary building units into a ladder‐like chain. These chains are further connected by the flexible bimb ligand in a trans–trans–trans conformation. As a result, a twofold three‐dimensional interpenetrating α‐Po network is formed. Complex (2) exhibits a two‐dimensional (4,4) topological network architecture in which the iip2? ligand shows the (κ1)(κ1)‐μ2 coordination mode. The solid‐state UV–Vis spectra of (1) and (2) were investigated, together with the fluorescence properties of (2) in the solid state. |