Three barium diphosphonates with 3-D structures

The gel crystallization method was exploited in this work in order to study the 3-D solid state structures of barium diphosphonates. This technique proved to be an effective tool for the growth of single crystals of diphosphonates for structure analysis. By using this approach, three barium diphosphonates, Ba[HO3P(CH2)2PO3H] (1), Ba2[O3P(CH2)3PO3]·3H2O (2) and Ba[HO3P(CH2)4PO3H] (3), with different three dimensional structures, were synthesized and characterized. The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction and the structure of 3 by the powder diffraction method. In the structure of 1, the diphosphonate ligand is completely surrounded by the Ba atoms, which is an unusual arrangement in a diphosphonate system. The structures of 2 and 3 are more conventional. They are organized in typical pillared layers in which the separation of the layers can be adjusted by varying the length of the hydrocarbon chain.

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