In coordination chemistry and crystal engineering, many factors influence the construction of coordination polymers and the final frameworks depend greatly on the organic ligands used. The diverse coordination modes of N-donor ligands have been employed to assemble metal-organic frameworks. Carboxylic acid ligands can deprotonate completely or partially when bonding to metal ions and can also act as donors or acceptors of hydrogen bonds; they are thus good candidates for the construction of supramolecular architectures. We synthesized under reflux or hydrothermal conditions two new alkaline earth(II) complexes, namely poly[(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2N,N')bis(μ-3-phenylprop-2-enoato-κ3O,O':O)calcium(II)], [Ca(C10H7O2)2(C10H8N2)]n, (1), and poly[(1,10-phenanthroline-κ2N,N')(μ3-3-phenylprop-2-enoato-κ4O:O,O':O')(μ-3-phenylprop-2-enoato-κ3O,O':O)barium(II)], [Ba(C10H7O2)2(C10H8N2)]n, (2), and characterized them by FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopies, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, as well as by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis. Complex (1) features a chain topology of type 2,4 C4, where the Ca atoms are connected by O and N atoms, forming a distorted bicapped trigonal prismatic geometry. Complex (2) displays chains of topology type 2,3,5 C4, where the Ba atom is nine-coordinated by seven O atoms of bridging/chelating carboxylate groups from two cinnamate ligands and by two N atoms from one phenanthroline ligand, forming a distorted tricapped prismatic arrangement. Weak C-H...O hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking interactions between phenanthroline ligands are responsible to the formation of a supramolecular three-dimensional network. The thermal decompositions of (1) and (2) in the temperature range 297-1173 K revealed that they both decompose in three steps and transform to the corresponding metal oxide.
Keywords: alkaline earth complexes; cinnamic acid; crystal structure; network topology; spectroscopic analysis; thermal analysis; three-dimensional coordination polymer.