Open-framework aluminoborates co-templated by two types of primary amines.

A series of open-framework aluminoborates (ABOs), [CH(3)NH(3)][(CH(3)CH(2))(2)NH(2)][Al(B(5)O(10))] (1), [CH(3)CH(2)NH(3)][(CH(3)CH(2))(2)NH(2)][Al(B(5)O(10))] (2), [CH(3)CH(2)NH(3)][(CH(3))(2)NH(2)](H(2)O)(0.5)[Al(B(5)O(10))] (3) and [CH(3)NH(3)][CH(3)CH(2)NH(3)](H(2)O)(2)[Al(B(5)O(10))] (4) have been made co-templated by two types of primary amines under solvothermal conditions and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, TGA, UV-Vis, powder XRD, single crystal XRD and NLO determination, respectively. These four ABOs display two structural types: 1, 2 and 3 are isostructural and exhibit CrB(4) topology, showing three different layers along three different directions; while 4 contains 8-, 14-ring layers, which are packed along the [001] direction to form a noncentrosymmetric 3D framework with 8-, 14-ring channels, showing second harmonic generation (SHG) response that is about 0.5 times that of KDP (KH(2)PO(4)). The electronic structure calculations for 1 and 4 also have been performed.