Discrete chiral single-crystal microtubes assembled with honeycomb coordination networks showing structural diversity and borromean topology in one single crystal

The spontaneous resolution of enantiomeric pure single-crystal microtubules containing discrete crystal pores was demonstrated. The intriguing Borroman topological intercalation of two structurally diversified networks assembled via metal-ligand interactions was also reported. A semi-rigid tripodal ligand, 1,3,5-tris(4-((2-ethyl-benzimidazol-1-yl) methyl)phenyl)benzene, featuring a large basal plane and three free-rotating pendants were synthesized. The crystal analysis clearly showed that chiral space group P6(3)2 for a pair of enantiomers contain two types of honeycomb metal-organic networks. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) performed in air indicated that the crystal tubes were stable at a temperature of 300°C. Reproducible growth of crystal tubes also indicated that the tubular shapes was unique to the complex 1 and the tube size can go down to microscale.