Syntheses and crystal structures of a series of new divalent metal phosphonates with imino-bis(methylphosphonic acid)

Hydrothermal reactions of divalent transition metal salts with imino-bis(methylphosphonic acid), NH(CH₂PO₃H₂)₂ (H₄L) afforded three new metal phosphonates, namely, CuNH(CH₂PO₃H)₂] 1, {CoNH₂(CH₂PO₃H)(CH₂PO₃)](H₂O)₂}·H₂O 2 and MnNH₂(CH₂PO₃H)(CH₂PO₃)](H₂O) 3. When HO₂C(CH₂)₃N(CH₂PO₃H₂)₂ was used as the phosphonate ligand and 4,4′-bipy as the second metal linker, {Cu₄NH(CH₂PO₃)₂]₂(4,4′-bipy)(H₂O)₄}·9H₂O 4 with a pillared layered architecture was obtained. The NH(CH₂PO₃)₂ anion resulted from the cleavage of the HO₂C(CH₂)₃-group during the reaction. Although compounds 1-3 have a same M/L ratio (1:1), they exhibit totally different structures.Compound 1 has a linear chain structure, in which each pair of square-pyramidal coordinated copper(II) ions are bridged by two phosphonate oxygen atoms to form a Cu₂O₂ dimeric unit, and such dimeric units are further interconnected via phosphonate groups to form a 010] chain. Compound 2 has a layered architecture built from CoO₆ octahedra bridged by phosphonate ligands. In compound 3, the interconnection of the manganese(II) ions by bridging imino-diphosphonate ligands leads to a 3D network. Compound 4 has a pillar-layered structure, the layers composed of Cu(II) ions bridged by aminodiphosphonate ligands are interconnected by 4,4′-bipy ligands to form channels along c-axis. Several factors that affect the structures of the metal phosphonates formed have also been discussed. Compounds 2 and 3 show predominant antiferromagnetic interactions between magnetic centers.