A snapshot of a coordination polymer self-assembly process: the crystallization of a metastable 3D network followed by the spontaneous transformation in water to a 2D pseudopolymorphic phase

A metastable copper(II) 3D hybrid with 4,4'-bipyridine (4,4'-bipy) and P,P'-diphenylethylenediphosphinate (pc(2)p(2-)) undergoes a spontaneous, quantitative, transformation to a stable 2D polymorphic species either spontaneously in water, or after thermal dehydration followed by hydration.