The quest for hydrogen bond-based metal organic nanotubes (MONT)

Given the ability of forming homomeric amide···amide dimer by iso-nicotinamide (nda), we postulate the existence of a hydrogen bond equivalent of the iso-reticular metal organic nanotubes (MONT) built by using copper, p,p′-diphenylmethylene-diphosphinate (pcp), and bipyridine. We obtained the desired primary arrangement of Cu/pcp/nda consisting of a 1-D chain. Instead of the expected amide/amide dimer, the NH₂ groups were engaged in H-bonding networks with the phosphinate ligands in a series of 2-D slabs. The differences and the similarities of the Cu/pcp chains in known MONTs and in the reported structure are also highlighted.