Toward quartz and cristobalite: spontaneous resolution, structures, and characterization of chiral silica-mimetic silver(I)-organic materials.

An alpha-quartz-mimetic chiral coordination network of [Ag(L1)(CF3SO3)]n (L1=5,5'-bipyrimidine), after treatment with PF6- anions, undergoes a solution-state structural transformation toward [Ag(L1)(PF6)]n with a cristobalite-mimetic chiral structures. This structural transformation is accompanied by substantial enhancement in the fluorescent intensity and in the second-harmonic-generation response. The results also demonstrate an effective design strategy based on the spontaneous resolution route for the preparation of chiral architectures.