Stepwise construction of discrete parallelogram- and prism-shaped organometallic architectures based on half-sandwich rhodium fragments

Abstract

Herein we describe how to take advantage of a multifunctional ligand to conveniently control the shapes and sizes of different types of discrete organometallic assemblies. Using a versatile ligand 2-(pyridin-2-yl)-1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylate (HL²⁻), which features three kinds of chelating sites, together with half-sandwich rhodium fragments, a series of discrete organometallic complexes with tetranuclear parallelogram and hexanuclear trigonal prism shapes were achieved. The isomerization of the hexanuclear assemblies was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The results also reiterate that pyridyl-substituted imidazole-4,5-dicarboxylate ligands can be used as multifunctional organic scaffolds in the construction of elegant architectures.