Assembly of a 3D nanoporous framework [Cu6(OH)4(tib)8]n 8+ from Cu(ii) and the flexible tripodal ligand tibElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: part of packing diagram selected to show Cu···O interactions and O···O hydrogen interactions (Fig. 1S). See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b1/b100325i/

Abstract

The structural characterization of a 3D nanoporous complex {[Cu₆(tib)₈(OH)₄](OH)₈ ·22H₂O·4MeOH}_n 1 [tib = 1,3,5-tris- (imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene] assembled from the tripodal ligand tib and Cu(MeCO₂)₂ shows that π–π interactions resulting from the novel T-shaped conformation of the ligand are the key trigger for the construction of the backbone of a framework with channels of size 12.00 × 18.91 and 10.30 × 13.66 Å.