Crystal structures of coordination polymers from CaI(2) and proline

Completing our reports concerning the reaction products from calcium halides and the amino acid proline, two different solids were found for the reaction of l- and dl-proline with CaI(2). The enanti­opure amino acid yields the one-dimensional coordination polymer catena-poly[[aqua-μ(3)-l-proline-tetra-μ(2)-l-proline-dicalcium] tetra­iodide 1.7-hydrate], {[Ca(2)(C(5)H(9)NO(2))(5)(H(2)O)]I(4)·1.7H(2)O}(n), (1), with two independent Ca(2+) cations in characteristic seven- and eightfold coordination. Five symmetry-independent zwitterionic l-proline mol­ecules bridge the metal sites into a cationic polymer. Racemic proline forms with Ca(2+) cations heterochiral chains of the one-dimensional polymer catena-poly[[di­aquadi-μ(2)-dl-proline-calcium] diiodide], {[Ca(C(5)H(9)NO(2))(2)(H(2)O)(2)]I(2)}(n), (2). The centrosymmetric structure is built by one Ca(2+) cation that is bridged towards its symmetry equivalents by two zwitterionic proline mol­ecules. In both structures, the iodide ions remain non-coordinating and hydrogen bonds are formed between these counter-anions, the amino groups, coordinating and co-crystallized water mol­ecules. While the overall composition of (1) and (2) is in line with other structures from calcium halides and amino acids, the diversity of the carboxyl­ate coordination geometry is quite surprising.