Synthesis, structural determination and catalytic study of a new 2-D chloro-substituted zinc phosphate, (C₈N₂H₂₀)[ZnCl(PO₃(OH))]₂, Rayes, A.; Herrera, R. P.; Moncer, M.; Ara, I.; Calestani, G.; Ayed, B.; Mezzadri, F. J. Mol. Struct. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molstruc.2019.127216

Abstract. A novel chloro-substituted zinc-phosphate, (C₈N₂H₂₀)[ZnCl(PO₃(OH)]₂, has been synthesized by a slow evaporation method in the presence of 1,3-cyclohexanebis- (methylamine), which acts as a template. The structure consists of vertex linked ZnO₃Cl and PO₃(OH) tetrahedral, assembled into corrugated porous layers [ZnCl(PO₃(OH))₂]_∞ with (4.8²) topology. The optical properties were also investigated using Diffuse Reflecting Spectroscopy (DRS), showing that the title compound has semiconducting properties. In addition, the catalytic activity of (C₈N₂H₂₀)[ZnCl(PO₃(OH))]₂ has been tested in the acetalisation reaction of aldehydes. The title compound displayed a high catalytic activity with practically total conversion in many examples using MeOD as solvent and as the sole source of acetalisation. More importantly, the reaction crudes are very clean and only the preferred products are found in the NMR spectra.