Structural Systematics of Lanthanide(III) Picrate Solvates: Neutral, Mononuclear Ln(pic)3(dimethylsulfoxide)3 Arrays

Abstract

Adducts of dimethylsulfoxide, dmso=Me2SO, with lanthanide(iii) picrates (picrate=2,4,6-trinitrophenoxide, pic) of stoichiometry Ln(pic)3·3dmso have been prepared and characterised by single-crystal X-ray structure determinations as discrete, neutral, mononuclear molecular species. Such complexes have been obtained across the gamut of Ln, specifically for Ln=La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Yb, Lu, and Y, presumably also accessible for other intermediate members, the series being isomorphous (monoclinic, C2/c, Z=8); a second triclinic P form has also been identified for Ln=La, Pr. In both forms, the metal atom coordination environments are nine-coordinate, tricapped trigonal prismatic, [Ln(dmso-O)3(pic-O,O′)3], two of the three unidentate ligands lying in one of the trigonal planes and one in the other (an isomer we have termed meridional, mer). A hydrated form of Ln(pic)3·2dmso·H2O stoichiometry has also been defined for Ln=Sm, Gd, Lu, the metal atom environment again nine-coordinate, [Ln(dmso-O)2(H2O)(pic-O,O′)3], but now fac, with the three unidentate ligands occupying one triangular face of the tricapped trigonal prism and involved in a centrosymmetric H-bonding array with the three similar ligands of an adjacent complex; the three capping atoms are nitro-oxygen atoms, the phenoxy-O triad occupying the other face.