Coordination Nanosheets Based on Terpyridine-Zinc(II) Complexes: As Photoactive Host Materials.

Photoluminescent coordination nanosheets (CONASHs) comprising three-way terpyridine (tpy) ligands and zinc(II) ions are created by allowing the two constitutive components to react with each other at a liquid/liquid interface. Taking advantage of bottom-up CONASHs, or flexibility in organic ligand design and coordination modes, we demonstrate the diversity of the tpy-zinc(II) CONASH in structures and photofunctions. A combination of 1,3,5-tris[4-(4'-2,2':6',2″-terpyridyl)phenyl]benzene (1) and Zn(BF) affords a cationic CONASH featuring the bis(tpy)Zn complex motif (1-Zn), while substitution of the zinc source with ZnSO realizes a charge-neutral CONASH with the [Zn(μ-OSO)(tpy)] motif [1-Zn(SO)].