Silver–Cytidine Coordination Polymer: Electrical Properties, Modulating Intrachain Ag···Ag Distance, and MOF–Nanosheet Transformation

A change of solvent provides a means to modulate the intermetallic distance of the Ag ion chains in solvated structures of [AgI(cytidine-5'-monophosphate)], a 3D coordination polymer which features the less common O-2,N-3-binding mode for the nucleobase. Though the shortest Ag center dot center dot center dot Ag separation is within 5% of that in the metallic element, the coordination polymer is not electrically conducting, as shown by oriented singlecrystal I/V measurements. Band structure calculations for the isolated coordination chain ([Ag-(O-2,N-3-Cyt)](+))(n) also support this. Additionally, we demonstrate that these AgI ion chains are retained when crystalline MOF samples are processed as dispersions in the liquid phase by ultrasonication, yielding well-defined bilayer nanosheets through cleavage of phosphoester O-Ag bonds.