A new chiral rare-earth organic framework constructed by tartaric acid: synthesis, structural, thermal investigations and optical properties

Hydrothermal reactions of rare-earth cerium with L-tartaric acid afford a new coordination polymer, namely, poly[[triaqua(μ 4 -L-tartrato)cerium(III)] chloride], {[Ce(C 4 H 4 O 6 )(H 2 O) 3 ]Cl} n , (1). The structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and further characterized by IR and UV–Vis spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the compound is a new two-dimensional (2D) double-layered structure with one-dimensional left-handed helical chains. The different intermolecular interactions were confirmed using Hirshfeld surface analysis and molecular fingerprint plots. Molecular 2D fingerprint plots quantify the different interactions and highlight that H...H (24.8%), H...O/O...H (26.3%), Cl...H/H...Cl (19.6%), O...O (13.8%) and Ce...O/O...Ce (13.6%) interactions account for 99.8% of all contacts. Additionally, the photoluminescence properties of the compound were investigated in the solid state.