The solvent acetonitrile molecules
in 2 do not participate in any distinguished H-bond, but are
found in the voids of the canals. Therefore, the bridging nature of
a ferulic acid anion via the carboxylato and phenolato groups is
thus seen in both molecular structures of 1 and 2. This may indeed
be possible due to such a H-bonding network as well as coordination
bonding. Nevertheless, a stability of 1 and 2 is strongly dependant
on the acetonitrile molecules found in both compounds.
Namely, the crystal structures of 1 and 2 are not stable outside
mother liquid and they both decompose by removal of the acetonitrile
molecules (CHN analysis, powder diffraction patterns – see
the Supplementary data), giving the final solid products 1a and
2a, respectively. It seems that this decomposition is not destruct