The room-temperature reaction of Me3Ga with benzimidazole 2-carboxylic acid in xylene solvent has yielded a novel crystalline hexameric gallium compound with "MeGa" moieties bridged by the doubly depronotated ligand precursor. Crystals of [MeGa(4,5-benzimidazolato-2-carboxylato)]6·(C6H6)·(m-Me2C6H4)2 are monoclinic, a = 18.091(2), b = 17.094(2), c = 13.2215(5) Å, Z = 2, space group C2/m. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined by full-matrix least-squares procedures to R (F, I [Formula: see text] 3σ(I)) = 0.064 (Rw (F2, all data) = 0.134). The hexameric Ga complex contains a six-membered ring of Ga atoms, bridged by the benzimidazolate ligands with the benzo rings projecting alternately above and below the Ga plane, thus forming a ball-shaped molecule. The complex could have ideal D3d symmetry, but it contains an encapsulated molecule of benzene, which distorts the regularity of the Ga6 hexagon, and reduces the symmetry of the complex to the crystallographically observed C2h. The coordination geometry at each of the two independent GaO2N2C centres approximates a trigonal bipyramid, with a N2C trigonal plane, and the O atoms above and below; average dimensions are Ga-O = 2.176(2), Ga-N = 1.973(3), Ga-C = 1.927(5) Å, O-Ga-O = 165°. The unit cell also contains four m-xylene solvent molecules (outside the molecular cage).Key words: gallium, crystal structure, benzene intercalate, benzimidazolecarboxylic acid.
Structural and optical properties of europium doped Y2O3 nanoparticles prepared by self-propagation room temperature reaction method