The occurrence of interpenetration in metal–organic and inorganic networks has been investigated by a systematic analysis of the CSD and ICSD structural databases. For this purpose, a novel version of TOPOS (a program package for multipurpose crystallochemical analysis) has been employed, where the procedure of recognition of interpenetrating nets is based on the representation of a crystal structure as a finite reduced graph. In this paper we report a comprehensive list (301 Refcodes) of interpenetrating metal–organic 3D structures from CSD, that are analyzed on the basis of their topologies. Interesting trends and novel features have been observed and distinct classes of interpenetrating nets have been envisaged, depending on the relationships of the individual motifs.

A number of coordination networks, exhibiting novel and fascinating types of entanglements of individual motifs have been reported throughout the years by many groups. The structural complexity of these species has caused, in some cases, misinterpretations regarding the correct nature of the entanglement. In this article, we analyse the structures of some polymeric networks of the ‘polycatenanes’ class, which have the peculiar feature of all the constituent motifs having lower dimensionality than that of the overall array. Unexpected topological features and new linkages, that had previously been overlooked, have been discovered. The most relevant finding concerns the first observation of examples of Borromean links in 3D and 2D arrays. These systems are comprised of layers that are not catenated but, nonetheless, inseparably entangled in an uncommon topological fashion.