Coordination polymers based on alkylboronate ligands : synthesis, characterization, and computational modelling

Berthomieu, Dorothée and Gervais, Christel and Renaudin, Guillaume and Reinholdt, Marc and Sene, Saad and Smith, Mark E. and Bonhomme, Christian and Laurencin, Danielle (2015) Coordination polymers based on alkylboronate ligands : synthesis, characterization, and computational modelling. European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2015 (7). pp. 1182-1191. ISSN 1434-1948

Abstract

Boronate ligands [R–B(OH)3–] have recently started to attract attention for the elaboration of coordination polymer networks. Here, three new crystalline structures involving butyl- and octylboronate ligands are described: Sr[Bu–B(OH)3]2, Ca[Oct–B(OH)3]2 and Sr[Oct–B(OH)3]2 (Bu = C4H9, Oct = C8H17). All were obtained as microcrystalline powders, and their structures were solved by synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction. IR and multinuclear (13C, 11B, 43Ca, 87Sr and 1H) solid-state NMR characterizations were performed on the materials. Computational models of the new Sr[Bu–B(OH)3]2 phase and the previously reported Sr[Ph–B(OH)3]2·H2O structure were then developed. The IR O–H stretching modes and NMR parameters were calculated for these models and are discussed in view of the experimental spectra. This work confirms the importance of computational studies on boronate phases to determine the nature of the H-bond network within the materials and to better understand their spectroscopic signatures.