Nina Lah, Primož Šegedin and Ivan Leban*
Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva 5, P.O. Box 537,  SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia
 
 

ABSTRACT

A new polymorphic adduct of copper(II) formate with formic acid, catena-bis(m2-formato-O,O’)-bis(formic acid-O)-copper(II) (?-form) has been prepared and structurally characterised by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Compound crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pbca with the following cell dimensions: a = 7.8773(17), b = 8.4775(2) and c = 12.1423(3) ?. The results show polymeric structure of the [Cu(HCOO)2(HCOOH)2]n composition with copper atoms being connected by formate anions in anti-anti mode into layers, parallel to ab plane with Cu-O distances 1.9453(10) and 1.9750(9) ?. Formic acid molecules are coordinated to copper ions at longer distances of 2.4346(12) ? as monodentate terminal ligands and are involved in a hydrogen bond connection of the neighbouring layers.