LAUSR

Abstract The solvothermal reaction of Cd(NO3)2·4H2O and Zn(NO3)·6H2O with phthalic acid (H2pa) and 1,3-bis(2-methyl-imidazol-1-yl)propane (bip) using mixed ligand strategy afforded two new coordination polymers (CPs) of [Cd (pa) (bip) (H2O)]n (1) and {[Zn2 (pa)2 (bip)2]·6H2O}n (2), which have been structurally characterized. Both CPs consist of one-dimensional chains containing two alternative type of rings. Additionally, two types of trimeric water clusters are also present in 2. The uncoordinated carboxylate oxygens of pa ligands interact with free water molecules via hydrogen bonds, which further stabilized the full network. Also, both CPs have been used as photocatalyst for degradation of model organic dyes viz. methyl violet (MV) and rhodamine B (RhB) under UV light. The results indicated that both the CPs display good photocatalytic property. The plausible mechanism associated with photocatalytic activities of 1 and 2 against MV/RhB have been proposed using density of states (DOS) and partial DOS calculations.