Synthesis, Structure, and Properties of a Chiral Zinc(II) Metal-Organic Framework Featuring Linear Trinuclear Secondary Building Blocks

A chiral metal-organic framework formulated as [Zn-3(L-TMTA)(2)(4,4'-bpy)(4)]center dot 24H(2)O (1) was prepared from the reaction of Zn(NO3)(2)center dot 6H(2)O with trimesoyltri(L-alanine) (L-TMTAH(3)) in the presence of 4,4'-bipyridine (4,4'-bpy). Compound 1 features linear trinuclear secondary building blocks [Zn-3(syn-syn-COO)(2)(mu(2),eta(3)-COO)(2)](2+). Each linear trinuclear secondary building block is further linked to another eight ones around it by four L-TMTA(3-) ligands and eight 4,4'-bpy ligands, leading to the construction of a uninodal three-dimensional framework with triangular prism-like one-dimensional channels. Dehydrated compound 1 displays remarkable adsorption selectivity on CO2 and water vapour over N-2 gas.