Crystalline nanotube array would create great opportunity for novel electrical application. Herein we report the first example of a metal halide based crystalline nanotube array which is constructed from an unprecedented giant [Pb^II₁₈I₅₄(I₂)₉] wheel cluster, as determined by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The electrical properties of the single crystal were studied and the present compound shows typical semiconductivity and highly anisotropic conductivity.

Crystalline nanotube array would create great opportunity for novel electrical application. Herein we report the first example of a metal halide based crystalline nanotube array which is constructed from an unprecedented giant [Pb^II₁₈I₅₄(I₂)₉] wheel cluster, as determined by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The electrical properties of the single crystal were studied and the present compound shows typical semiconductivity and highly anisotropic conductivity.

Two new azo-based coordination compounds with a flexible second ligand, crystal 1 (composed with [Zn(adc)(eda)]_n-1) and crystal 2 (composed with {[Zn(adc)]_0.9568(eda)}_n-1′ and {[Zn(adc)]_0.0414}_n) have been synthesized as a couple of isomers with different reaction temperature. Adc²⁻ and eda represent azobenzene-4,4′-dicarboxylic ion and 1,2-ethanediamine, respectively. Single crystal X-ray diffraction measurement indicates the interpenetration of the above crystals could be suppressed by simply tuning the reaction temperature, that is, the 5-fold interpenetration which leads to no free volume left in lower temperature synthesized compound [Zn(adc)(eda)]_n-1 could be reduced to a 4-fold interpenetration in higher temperature synthesized {[Zn(adc)]_0.9568(eda)}_n-1′ which results in free volume accounting for 3.6% (31.6 ų per unit cell volume) in crystal 2. The synthesis, crystal structure and fluorescence spectra of crystals 1 and 2 have been discussed, together with the data of elemental analysis and X-ray powder diffraction.