Coordination polymers based on flexible ditopic carboxylate or nitrogen-donor ligands

The design and construction of coordination polymers (CPs) is of current interest in the fields of supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering. Compared to rigid ligands, using flexible ligands to construct CPs is more difficult and developing systematic methodologies of synthesis materials from a prior design structure via flexible ligands is still a great challenge. Due to the sensitivity and diversification of flexible ligands, they can afford good opportunities to investigate the details of the self-assembly process and provide more information on the directional synthesis of target CPs. We have long been involved in the area of flexible ligand complex design and synthesis. The guiding principle of this highlight attempts to represent structural features and influential factors which we have learned throughout the course of this research. Although a priori rigorous prediction and control of crystal structures is still difficult, we hope our observations can be useful for further research and make a step closer to understanding the mystery of self-assembly of CPs.