The First Crystal Structures of Mercury(II) Complexes of Tetra-amides (L1 and L2) and Tetramethylamides (L3 and L4) of EDTA and PDTA. Formation of Distorted Octahedral and Distorted Capped Octahedral Mercury(II) Complexes and of a Trinuclear Complex containing HgCl2-bridged [Hg(L3)Cl]+ Moieties

The first crystal structures of Hg-II complexes of EDTA and PDTA tetra-amides are reported. Reaction of EDTA and PDTA tetra-amides (L-1 and L-2) and tetramethylamides (L-3 and L-4) with HgCl2 in water/ethanol/acetone produced complexes of formula [Hg(L-1)Cl][HgCl4](0.5)center dot 0.5H2O, (1), [Hg(L-2)Cl](2)[HgCl4]center dot 6H(2)O, (2), [Hg-3(L-3)(2)Cl-4][HgCl3](2)center dot 2H(2)O, (3), [Hg(L-3)Cl](2)(PF6)(2)center dot 5H(2)O, (4), and [Hg(L-4)Cl](2)[HgCl3](2)center dot 1.5H(2)O, (5), in which the denticity of the tetraamide ligand is 6 in complexes 1-4 but 5 in complex 5 giving distorted capped octahedral 7-coordinate complexes and distorted octahedral 6-coordinate complexes, respectively Complex 3 contains a trinuclear cation resulting from HgCl2-bridging of two [HgL3(Cl)](+) moieties. The X-ray crystal structures of the complexes reveal the existence of supramolecular aggregates resulting from infinite 3D frameworks of H-bonds.