Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University
â—‹Sue-Lein Wang
The study reports an interesting photoluminescent elastic zincophosphate lattice in which achiral organic molecules are confined to become chiral or helical supramolecular infinite chains and supramolecular water hexamers are confined to exist in an isolated form. While organic polymers containing dispersed inorganic particles are not uncommon, the subsistence of organic supramolecular infinite entities in inorganic-based matrix has never been reported. The system of NTHU-3 represents the first example that organic supramolecular infinite chains can be prepared in a layered zincophosphate, providing prospect syntheses of hybrid organic-inorganic bio-nanocomposites in phosphates as in layered double hydroxides. Besides, the explicit hydrogen bonding structure retrieved from the (H2O)6 clusters in NTHU-3 is unprecedented and may be of great importance for the derivative properties of bulk ice. We discover that the irremovable template ions in the system are dynamic and may exert pronounced effect on the self-assembly of various organic supramolecular chains between the ZnPO strata, stabilizing the ice-like (H2O)6 clusters in an isolated state, and keeping the recoverable amorphous-to-crystalline property for NTHU-3.