Multinuclear coordination polymers based on Ag Ag interaction: syntheses, structures, and luminescence propertiesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Selected bond distances and angles, structure illustrations for compounds 1-8 and the simulated and experimental PXRD patterns. CCDC 984125-984133. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c4ce00236a

A series of coordination polymers based on Ag Ag interactions, namely, [Ag 2 (hpyb) 0.5 (L1) 0.5 (NO 3 )]·H 2 O ( 1 ), [Ag 4 (hpyb)(HL2)(NO 3 ) 2 ]·2H 2 O ( 2 ), [Ag 3 (hpyb) 0.5 (L3)(NO 3 )] ( 3 ), [Ag 6 (hpyb)(L4) 2 (NO 3 )]·NO 3 ·2H 2 O ( 4 ), [Ag 5 (hpyb) 0.5 (L5) 2 (NO 3 )]·H 2 O ( 5 ), {Ag 4 (hpyb)[L6(CH 3 ) 2 ] 2 } ( 6 ), {Ag 6 (hpyb)(HL7) 2 [L7(CH 3 )]} ( 7 ) and [Ag 3 (hpyb) 0.5 (HL8)]·H 2 O ( 8 ) (H 2 L1 = p -phthalic acid, H 3 L2 = 1,2,3-benzenetricarboxylic acid, H 2 L3 = cis -2-butenedioic acid, H 2 L4 = 2,3-pyridinedicarboxylic acid, H 2 L5 = m -phthalic acid, H 4 L6 = 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid, H 3 L7 = 1,2,4-benzenetricarboxylic acid and H 4 L8 = 4,4′-oxydiphthalic acid) has been synthesized. For compounds 1-4 , the polycarboxylate anions bridge multinuclear Ag( i ) units to form 1D chains, respectively. The chains are extended by π-π interactions into a 2D supramolecular layer for compound 3 and 3D supramolecular architectures for compounds 1 , 2 and 4 . Compound 5 displays a 3D (4,8)-connected (3 4 ·4 2 )(3 4 ·4 12 ·5 8 ·6 4 ) 2 framework. Compounds 6-8 exhibit 2D layers, where the layers of 6 and 8 are further linked by π-π interactions to yield 3D supramolecular architectures. In the solid state, compounds 1-8 exhibit strong fluorescence emission bands at room temperature. Eight Ag-containing compounds based on a N-donor hpyb ligand and different polycarboxylic acids have been successfully synthesized under solvothermal conditions, where the luminescence properties of 1-8 were also investigated.