Synthesis, crystal structures and catalytic properties of two 1D cobalt(II) coordination polymers

Two new cobalt(II) coordination polymers, namely [Co 1.5 (PhCOO) 3 (bbbm) 1.5 (H 2 O)] n ( 1 ) and [Co(chdc)(bbbm)] n ( 2 ) (bbbm = 1,1′-(1,4-butanediyl)bis-1H-benzimidazole, H 2 chdc = 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid), have been synthesized and structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The cobalt(II) centers display different environments, with trigonal–bipyramidal and octahedral geometries in 1 and a tetrahedral geometry in 2 . The 1D linear chains of complex 1 and ladder-like chains of complex 2 are bridged by bbbm in bis-monodentate coordination mode; the variation of the carboxylate co-ligand effectively tunes the resulting framework architecture. The degradation of methyl orange in a photochemical Fenton-like process using complexes 1 and 2 as catalysts was investigated.