A nearly planar water sheet sandwiched between strontium-imidazolium carboxylate coordination polymers.

The crystal structure of a strontium-imidazolium polymeric material obtained from the reaction of zwitterionic 1,3-bis(carboxymethyl)imidazolium with SrCO(3) (2:1) in water is reported. The compound crystallized in the orthorhombic space group Pcc2 with a = 14.545(3) A, b = 8.514(5) A, c = 8.5619(14) A, V = 1060.2(6) A(3), and Z = 2. The macromolecular structure is constructed from 8-coordinate strontium, which binds to six different imidazolium carboxylate molecules. The two-dimensional polymer is separated by water sheets in which the water molecules form near-planar hexagons.