Molecular assembly of polycyanovinylarenes with silver salts

ORGN 87

John R. VanScoy1, Douglas M. Ho2, and Kathleen V. Kilway1. (1) Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 205 SCB, 5100 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110-2499, (2) Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Frick Laboratory, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544
This poster will summarize the new results in the area of the formation of metal clusters using polynitrile building blocks. Molecular-assembly research often uses simple building blocks and connectivity principles to construct diverse new materials. We have used polynitrile angular linkers to chelate silver in a variety of complexes. Recently, we have used polycynaovinylarenes as building blocks, which were complexed with silver salts and their structures were determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The molecular assembly of 9-(dicyanovinyl)anthracene (1) with silver hexafluoroantimonate from toluene resulted in a columnar structure. Complexation of 1 with silver hexafluoroantimonate from benzene resulted in a layered 3D network. In our more recent work, a Knoevenagel condensation with isophthalaldehyde and malononitrile yielded 1,3-bis(dicyanovinyl)benzene (4). Synthesis of 4 has produced a new pathway for the complexation of silver salts of compounds with numerous nitrile sites. These results will be presented in this poster.