Assembly of large simple 1D and rare polycatenated 3D molecular ladders from T-shaped building blocks containing a new, long N,N'-bidentate ligand.

Molecular ladders [Co(2)(nbpy4)(3)(NO(3))(4)]*solvents and [Cd(2)(nbpy4)(3)(NO(3))(4)](nbpy4 =N,N'-bis-(4-pyridinylmethylene)-1,5-naphthalenediamine) were synthesized via self-assembly; the former is a large, simple, noninterpenetrated 1D ladder that contains guest solvent molecules between the rungs, while the latter exists as 1D ladders in a rare four-fold interlocked 3D structure.