Metalation of a Hierarchical Self-Assembly Consisting of -Stacked Cubes through Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Transformation.

Single-crystal-to-single-crystal metalation of organic ligands represents a novel method to prepare metal-organic complexes, but remains challenging. Herein, a hierarchical self-assembly {(HL)·([N(CH)])·(ClO)·(HO)} () (L = tris(2-benzimidazolylmethyl) amine) consisting of -stacked cubes which are assembled from eight partially protonated L ligands is obtained. By soaking the crystals of compound in the aqueous solution of Co(SCN), the ligands coordinate with Co ions stoichiometrically and ClO exchange with SCN via single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation, leading to {([CoSCNL])·([NCH])·(SCN)·(HO)} ().