In view of lithium ion with lower valance state and fewer coordination numbers, there is still a great challenge to prepare fascinating Li-cluster organic frameworks with structural diversity. The presence of lithium cubane cluster stimulates our interest of exploring new strategy for the construction of network based on polynuclear lithium units. In this work, we demonstrate that Li2O2 half-cubane cluster can be successfully applied as building block for the assembly of five new Li-organic frameworks, namely [Li2(Hip)(e-murea)2(H2O)](1), and [Li4(HiP)2(DMA)2](2), [Li2(Hip)(DMPU)(H2O)](3), [Li2(Hip)(H2O)](4) and [Li2(HiP)(DMF)(H2O)](5) (Hip = 5-hydroxyisophthalic acid, e-murea = 1, 3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone, DMPU = N,N-dimethylpropyleneurea, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide, DMA = N,N-dimethylacetamide). Single crystal X-ray analysis revealed that the variation of the connection mode and angle of half-cubane cluster can be the critical factors in structural evolution.
Graphical Abstract