Assembly of Cerium(III) 2,2′-Bipyridine-5,5′-dicarboxylate-based Metal–Organic Frameworks by Solvent Tuning

Small changes to the reaction conditions differentiate between two metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), {[Ce2(H2O)­(bpdc)3(dmf)2]·2­(dmf)}n (1) and {[Ce4(H2O)5(bpdc)6(dmf)]·x(dmf)}n (2), that were solvothermally synthesized from cerium­(III) nitrate hexahydrate and 2,2′-bipyridine-5,5′-dicarboxylic acid (H2bpdc) in dimethylformamide (dmf). The two compounds illustrate how the flexibility of the coordination geometry of CeIII translates into MOFs, the formation of which readily adapts to different solvent environments.