Arene Selectivity by a Flexible Coordination Polymer Host

The coordination polymers [Ag(4)(O(2)CCF(3))(4)(phen)(3)]⋅ phen⋅arene (1⋅phen⋅arene) (phen=phenazine; arene=toluene, p‐xylene or benzene) have been synthesised from the solution phase in a series of arene solvents and crystallographically characterised. By contrast, analogous syntheses from o‐xylene and m‐xylene as the solvent yield the solvent‐free coordination polymer [Ag(4)(O(2)CCF(3))(4)(phen)(2)] (2). Toluene, p‐xylene and benzene have been successfully used in mixed‐arene syntheses to template the formation of coordination polymers 1⋅phen⋅arene, which incorporate o‐ or m‐xylene. The selectivity of 1⋅phen⋅arene for the arene guests was determined, through pairwise competition experiments, to be p‐xylene>toluene≈benzene>o‐xylene>m‐xylene. The largest selectivity coefficient was determined as 14.2 for p‐xylene:m‐xylene and the smallest was 1.0 for toluene:benzene.