Tailoring Coordination Polymers by Substituent Effect: A Bifunctional CoII‐Doped 1D‐Coordination Network with Electrochemical Water Oxidation and Nitroaromatics Sensing

Three CdII coordination polymers (CPs) were synthesized with a tripodal ligand N,N',N' '-tris(4-pyridinylmethyl)-1,3,5-benzenetricarboxamide in combination with three different substituted isophthalic acids with general formulas {[Cd2 (L)(NIP)2 (H2 O)2 ].4H2 O}n , (CP-1), {[Cd2 (L)(AIP)2 (H2 O)2 ].4H2 O}n , (CP-2) and {[Cd(L)(BIP) (H2 O)].4H2 O}n , (CP-3). The substituent groups on the co-ligand had profound effect on the network topologies of the corresponding CPs as well as their properties. Out of the three, CP-1 and 2 were found to form 3D networks whereas CP-3 was a 1D linear chain with uncoordinated pyridyl sites. Due to its structural features CP-3 was found to show interesting properties. The 1D CP containing uncoordinated pyridyl site exhibited an excellent ability for doping with CoII which in turn acts as an efficient water oxidation electrocatalyst with required overpotential of 380 mV for an anodic current density of 1 mA cm-2 . The CP also exhibited luminescence-based detection of nitroaromatics (LOD: 0.003 mm) without any significant interference in presence of other organic compounds.