catena-Poly[[dichloridozinc(II)]-μ-[1,1'-(butane-1,4-di-yl)diimidazole-κN:N]].

The title one-dimensional coordination polymer, [ZnCl(2)(C(10)H(14)N(4))](n), was synthesized by hydro-thermal methods from ZnCl(2) and 1,1'-(butane-1,4-di-yl)diimidazole. The Zn atom is coordinated by two chloride ions and two N atoms from two symmetry-independent organic ligands and shows a distorted tetra-hedral coordination geometry. The 1,1'-(butane-1,4-di-yl)diimidazole ligands are located around two sets of inversion centers and bridge Zn(II) ions, forming a zigzag polymeric chain. C-H⋯Cl hydrogen bonding results in the formation of a three-dimensional supra-molecular network.

The title one-dimensional coordination polymer, [ZnCl 2 -(C 10 H 14 N 4 )] n , was synthesized by hydrothermal methods from ZnCl 2 and 1,1 0 -(butane-1,4-diyl)diimidazole. The Zn atom is coordinated by two chloride ions and two N atoms from two symmetry-independent organic ligands and shows a distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry. The 1,1 0 -(butane-1,4-diyl)diimidazole ligands are located around two sets of inversion centers and bridge Zn II ions, forming a zigzag polymeric chain. C-HÁ Á ÁCl hydrogen bonding results in the formation of a three-dimensional supramolecular network

Related literature
For general background to this work, see: Hamada et al. (2004); Wang et al. (2006).

Comment
The chemistry of novel metal-organic coordination complexes has attached more and more attention in recent years because of their interesting topologies and unexpected properties for potential applications . Recently, there has been increasing interest in zinc-halogen compounds because of their applications in molecular materials (Hamada et al. 2004;Wang et al., 2006). In this communication, we have introduced 1,1'-(butane-1,4-diyl)diimidazole (bbi) as a bridging ligand which favors crystal growth of the 1-D chain-like polymer. Through a mild-temperature hydrothermal process, we have successfully synthesized the title crystalline Cl-coordinated Zn complex, [ZnCl 2 (C 10 H 14 N 4 )] n , (I).
The molecular structure of (I) is shown in Fig. 1. The compound features 1-D chain-like polymer complex, in which the Zn atom is coordinated by two Cl anions and two N atoms from two bbi ligands in a distorted tetrahedral geometry, in which the Zn-Cl (2.238 (1) and 2.2567 (9) Å) and Zn-N(2.010 (2) and 2.016 (3) Å) bond lengths are in the expected ranges.
Each bbi ligand in the title compound is located on an inversion center and bridges Zn II ions, forming a zigzag polymeric chain with the adjacent Zn···Zn separation of 13.971 Å.
The strong C-H···Cl hydrogen bonding results in the formation of a 3-D supramolecular network, as shown in Fig. 2.

Experimental
The hydrothermal reaction of ZnCl 2 (0.041 g, 0.3 mmol), bbi (0.076 g, 0.4 mmol) and water (15.0 ml) was carried out at 423 K for 3 d. After cooling to room temperature at a rate of 5 K h -1 , block-shaped colorless crystals of the title compound suitable for X-ray analysis were obtained.