Comparison of Chiral and Racemic Forms of Zinc Cyclohexane trans-1,2-Dicarboxylate Frameworks: A Structural, Computational, and Calorimetric Study

An integrated study of the organic–inorganic framework material zinc cyclohexane trans‐1,2‐dicarboxylate involving synthesis, structure elucidation, computer simulation, and calorimetry shows that the chiral R,R form (right in picture) is less stable than its racemic R,R/S,S analogue (left) and adopts a layered structure with a fundamentally different topology. The results point to the possibility that the structural diversity of racemic frameworks and their homochiral analogues may be much greater than has hitherto been suspected.