Lead-carboxylate/polyiodide hybrids constructed from halogen bonding and asymmetric viologen: structures, visible-light-driven photocatalytic properties and enhanced photocurrent responses

The mono-substituted bipyridinium derivative 1-(3-carboxybenzyl)-4,4′-bipyridinium (cbpy) and polyiodide were adopted to construct two new lead-carboxylate hybrids: [Pb(cbpy)I 3 ·I 3 ] n ( 1 ) and {[Pb(cbpy) 2 ](I 3 ) 4 ·I 2 } n ( 2 ), in which interesting halogen bonds were detected. Specifically, the hybrids demonstrate efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes and excellent photocurrent response, and the mechanisms of degradation have been discussed and verified using theoretical calculations.