Monomer, dimer, tetramer, polymer: structural diversity in zinc and cadmium complexes of chelate-tethered nucleobases.

A series of ZnII and CdII complexes of adenine and guanine derivatives containing a diamine tether have been isolated from aqueous solutions and characterised by single crystal X-ray analysis. These studies reveal a wide range of structural types including monomeric, dimeric, tetrameric and polymeric architectures. The extended structures arise from the ability of the ligands to bridge metal ions using the chelating tether in conjunction with N7 of the nucleobase. Additional metal-nucleobase co-ordination is generally observed at the N3-site of the adenine derivatives. With CdII, ethylenediamine-N9-ethylguanine forms an inverted G-tetrad type structure.