Crystal and molecular structure of benzoylacetonato-[NN′-ethylenebis(salicylideneiminato)]cobalt(III)–1·5 water

Abstract

The structure of the title compound has been determined by three-dimensional X-ray structural analysis. The crystals are monoclinic with a= 11·51(1), b= 19·57(1), c= 11·42(1)Å, β= 110·3(1)°, space-group P2₁/c, and Z= 4. The structure was solved by conventional Patterson and Fourier techniques and was refined anisotropically by block-diagonal least-squares methods, using 2928 independent, photographically-collected reflections, to a final R of 0·068. The cobalt(III) molecule has a normal octahedral co-ordination, with a bidentate β-diketonate ligand and a strained non-planar configuration of the quadridentate salicylaldiminate ligand. The water molecules form a hydrogen-bonded chain of four waters linking phenolate oxygens of two different molecules across a crystallographic centre of symmetry. Bond lengths are normal with a mean cobalt–oxygen distance of 1·891(4) and a mean cobalt–nitrogen distance of 1·889(5)Å. However, the molecule is distinctly strained as shown by some quite significant distortions of bond angles of the ligands and the cobalt(III) co-ordination polyhedron.