A silver(i) coordination polymer with sodium 3,5-dimethyl-4-sulfonate pyrazolate: A nice example of PXRD structure solution and time-driven crystallization

A silver(i) coordination polymer with the sodium salt of 3,5-dimethyl-4-sulfonate pyrazole (HLNa) has been prepared and structurally characterized by ab initio X-ray powder diffraction. The presence of the SO3Na substituent in position 4 of the pyrazole ring led to a 3D polymeric species in which organometallic/inorganic layers alternate along b. Zigzag chains of linearly coordinated Ag(i) ions keep together the inorganic layers, which consist of a trapezoidal grid of Na ions interconnected by bridging sulfonates and bridging water molecules which are both disordered about a mirror plane. Interestingly, the disordered moieties slowly reorganize in a time-driven crystallization process as observed on aged, 1 year old samples.