Discrete water hexamers and template-assisted molecular recognition in an elastic zincophosphate lattice.

Water molecules and terephthalic acid, respectively, exist as a self-assembled monolayer of cyclic (H2O)6 clusters and (TA)infinity chiral chains between the zincophosphate sheets (in blue wires); the irremovable template H3tren3+ ions (in purple wires) are dynamic and could translate back and forth on the sheets during the conversion of the supramolecule contained in one another.