Abstract
The ability to design porous materials is a coveted asset in many areas of chemistry including heterogeneous catalysis, ion exchange, and separation science. Metal diphosphonates are one class of hybrid, inorganic/organic compounds that are capable of adopting layered, porous structures. Earlier work performed in the research group of Professor Abraham Clearfield suggests that the diphosphonatoalkanes of zinc(II) and copper(II) form porous networks for which the sizes of the pores may be tuned by varying the lengths of the alkyl groups. To demonstrate that this is possible, we have further extended this work to the study of diphosphonatobutanes and diphosphonatopentanes of zinc and of copper. During our attempts to prepare zinc diphosphonatobutane, we isolated the new compound Zn(HO₃PC₄H₈PO₃H) ʺ 2 H₂O (1) and characterized it through spectroscopic and thermal analysis. Its structure was determined using powder X-ray diffraction data and it is significantly different from those of its propane and biphenyl analogs. We have successfully prepared the new materials Cu₂[(O₃PC₄H₈PO₃)(H₂O)₂] [] 2 H₂O (2) and Cu₂[(O₃PC₅H₁₀PO₃)(H₂O)₂] [] 2 H₂O (3), characterized them through spectroscopic and thermal analysis, and determined their structures from powder X-ray diffraction data using disorder models; their structures appear to be similar to that of their propane analog, but with larger pores. We have also performed preliminary experiments to investigate the reaction chemistry of the copper atoms within these assembled networks.
Arnold, Deirdre I. (2000). The synthesis and characterization of zinc(II) and copper(II) diphosphonatoalkanes. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2000 -THESIS -A76.