Powder X-ray diffraction, infrared and 13C NMR spectroscopic studies of the homologous series of some solid-state zinc(II) and sodium(I) n-alkanoates

•Comparative study of solid-state structures for series of zinc and sodium n-alkanoates.•FT-IR, solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy and PXRD carried out.•Zn-OOC: bridging bidentate and Na–OOC: chelating bidentate coordination.•Packing differences responsible for different levels of Van der Waals effects in the lattices.•Packing differences arise from different electronic structure of metal ions.

A comparative study of the room temperature molecular packing and lattice structures for the homologous series of zinc(II) and sodium(I) n-alkanoates adduced from Fourier transform infrared and solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopic data in conjunction with X-ray powder diffraction measurements is carried out. For zinc carboxylates, metal-carboxyl bonding is via asymmetric bridging bidentate coordination whilst for the sodium adducts, coordination is via asymmetric chelating bidentate bonding. All compounds are packed in a monoclinic crystal system. Furthermore, the fully extended all-trans hydrocarbon chains are arranged as lamellar bilayers. For zinc compounds, there is bilayer overlap, for long chain adducts (nc > 8) but not for sodium compounds where methyl groups from opposing layers in the lamellar are only closely packed. Additionally, the hydrocarbon chains are extended along the a-axis of the unit cell for zinc compounds whilst for sodium carboxylates they are extended along the c-axis. These packing differences are responsible for different levels of Van der Waals effects in the lattices of these two series of compounds, hence, observed odd–even alternation is different. The significant difference in lattice packing observed for these two series of compounds is proposed to be due to the difference in metal-carboxyl coordination mode, arising from the different electronic structure of the central metal ions.

Graphical abstractBasic solid sate structures of zinc and sodium carboxylates.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide