Photogeneration of Microporous Amorphous Coordination Polymers from Organometallic Ionic Liquids

Ruthenium-containing organometallic ionic liquids with the B(CN)(4) anion were developed that generate microporous amorphous coordination polymers upon UV irradiation. UV light irradiation of [Ru(C5H5)(C6H5R)][B(CN)(4)] (R = butyl, ethyl, octyl) quantitatively generated a yellow powder of a coordination polymer with the formula [Ru(C5H5){B(CN)(4)}](n). In this reaction, the arene ligand is eliminated by UV irradiation and coordination polymer is formed by coordination of the cyano groups of the anion to the Ru ion. The photogenerated solids exhibited nitrogen absorption properties due to their microporous structure. This paper proposes a method to fabricate functional coordination polymers by photoirradiation of liquids.