Interaction of biphenyl-2,2′,6,6′-tetracarboxylic acid (H4bta) and Zn(II) ions in DMF led to the formation of a one-dimensional coordination polymer, while in the presence of 1,10-phenanthroline and 1H,1′H-2,2′-biimidazole as terminal ligands in H2O, analogous interactions induced the generation of two-dimensional layers with (6, 3) topology. The bta ligands in these three coordination polymers adopt η4,μ2-tetradentate, η5,μ4-pentadentate and η4,μ4-tetradentate coordination modes, respectively, and the corresponding angles of two benzene rings of bta ligands are 70.52, 83.81 and 73.35°, in accordance with the coordination modes and steric hindrance effect of the terminal ligands.

Interactions of H4bta, Ni(II) ions with different terminal ligands (2,2′-bipy and H2biim) in H2O led to the formation of two complexes, [Ni(bta)0.5(2,2′-bipy)(H2O)]n (1) and Ni2(bta)(H2biim)4.2H2O (2) (H4bta = biphenyl-2,2′,6,6′-tetracarboxylic acid, 2,2′-bipy = 2,2′-bipyridine and H2biim = 1H,1’H-2,2′-biimidazole), in which 1 is a one-dimensional chain, while 2 is a binuclear compound. The bta ligands in 1 and 2 adopt hexadentate (1κO: 2κ2O3,O4: 1′κO: 2′κ2O3’,O4’) and tetradentate (1κ2O3,O4: 1′κ2O3’,O4’) coordination modes, respectively, and the corresponding angles of two benzene rings of bta ligands are 65.15 and 82.87°. This study indicates that the nature of terminal ligands is a crucial factor for the self-assemble of complexes.