Structural Diversity of Silver Fluorinated β-Diketonates: Effect of the Terminal Substituent and Solvent

In order to demonstrate the role of the fluorination and some solvents in the structural organization of the Ag(I) coordination polymers with β-diketonate ligands (R¹C(O)CαHC(O)R²)⁻ we synthesized a series of the compounds containing tfac-(R1 = CH3, R² = CF3) and pfpac-(R1 = CH3, R² = C2F5) anions. Solvent-free [Ag(L)]∞ (L = tfac 1, pfpac 2) compounds and the corresponding acetonitrile and toluene adducts have been characterized by elemental analysis and/or NMR, IR and single-crystal XRD. This series includes five new coordination polymers. Compound 1 is a 3D coordination framework based on Ag–Ochelate/bridge, Ag–Cα bonds, and argentophilic interactions. An increase in the fluorinated group leads to a chain coordination polymer 2 of an unusual structural organization. These chains can be represented as a “DNA-type”, where two intertwined helices based on Ag– Ochelate and Ag–Cα bonds are connected through Ag–Obridge ones. Two structural types of chain coordination polymers, [Ag(tfac)(CH3CN)] and [Ag2(L)2(solvent)], have been revealed for the adducts. The latter structural type differs significantly from the previously studied toluene and acetonitrile adducts of fluorinated Ag(I) β-diketonates of the same stoichiometry. Thermal analysis in helium showed that both 1 and 2 decompose to metallic silver with the compound of pfpac-ligand being slightly more stable.