Physical stability vs. chemical lability in microporous metal coordination polymers: a comparison of [Cu(OH)(INA)]n and [Cu(INA)2]n: INA = 1,4-(NC5H4CO2)Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: 1. Structure determination summaries for compounds 1–3. 2. Powder X-ray diffraction patterns: (a) for 1 and (b) for 2 after prolonged heating at different temperatures, establishing framework stabilities and (c) showing transformation of polymer 2 to the molecular compound 3, after 12 h in H2O. Fig. S1: copper coordination environments in compounds 1–3. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b2/b201501n/

Two microporous copper isonicotinate polymers [Cu(OH)(INA)] and [Cu(INA)2] have been formed hydrothermally in good yield and purity; each have 1D channels of ca. 4 x 6 A dimension, but with quite different hydrophilicities; both frameworks retain structural integrity to above 200 degrees C, however whilst [Cu(OH)(INA)] is also chemically stable, [Cu(INA)2] is highly labile and readily transforms to the molecular complex [Cu(INA)2(H2O)4] in water at room temperature.