Deliberate design of a 3D homochiral CuII/L-met/AgI coordination network based on the distinct soft-hard recognition principle

A homochiral amino acid coordination network [{Ag3Cu3(L-methioninato)(6)(NO3)(3)(H2O)(3)}center dot 7H(2)O](n), self-assembled from Cu-II, Ag-I, and L-methionine via a distinct soft-hard recognition process, shows interesting characteristics, in that it is constructed from 1D helical building blocks and contains homochiral channels in which 1D water chains are hosted. This result provides an effective and controllable strategy for the preparation of enantiopure heterometallic supramolecular structures that are relevant to biopolymers.