"Venetian blinds" mechanism of solvation/desolvation in palladium(II) wheel-and-axle organic-inorganic diols.

A family of organic-inorganic wheel-and-axle diols (Pd(LOH)(2)Cl(2), Pd(LOH)(2)(CH(3))Cl, Pd(LOH)(2)(CH(3)COO)(2), LOH = alpha-(4-pyridyl)benzhydrol) and several corresponding solvates are synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Their structures are compared to investigate the factors governing the modes of solid state association, the propensity to clathration, and the structural basis of guest inclusion. In all the complexes, the palladium coordination is a slightly distorted square.