Three new Zn（Ⅱ）/Cd（Ⅱ） coordination polymers based on 2-mercaptonicotinic acid （H2mna） with 1,2-di（4-pyridyl）ethylene （dpe） introduced as a bridging ligand have been synthesized via hydrothermal method and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction as well as elemental analysis and IR. As reported in this paper, [Zn2（dpe）0.5（mna）2] （1） can be classified as a two-dimensional layer structure in which the 1D chain composed of Zn（Ⅱ） and mna ligands is bridged by dpe ligands, while the complex named [Zn4（dpe）4（mna）4] （2） is a tetra-nuclear cluster compound. These two compounds are further extended to three-dimensional structures by hydrogen bonds along with C–H…π and π…π interactions. Compound 3 with general formular [Cd2（dpe）0.5（mna）2]·H2O belongs to a three-dimensional porous structure in which the 2D metal layers formed by the coordination of Cd（Ⅱ） and mna ligands are connected with the bridging of dpe ligands.
