Metal complexes of polycyclic tertiary amines. Part VII. Preparation and crystal structure determination of polymeric hexamethylenetetramine—mercury(II) thiocyanate (12), (CH2)6N4·2Hg(SCN)2

A 1:2 complex of hexamethylenetetramine with mercury(II) thiocyanate, (CH₂)₆N₄·2Hg(SCN)₂, was prepared and shown by X-ray crystallography to be polymeric. The mixed-ligand complex crystallizes in the space group P2₁/m, with a = 6.059(2), b = 19.710(5), c = 7.895(2) Å, β = 105.63(2)°, and Z = 2. The structure was refined to R_F = 0.060 for 1634 observed MoKα diffractometer data. Mercury(II) atoms in a row are linked pairwise by two thiocyanato groups in an end-to-end bridging mode, to give an infinite chain running in the a direction. Two neighboring chains are further laterally connected, successively by bidentate organic ligands which lie on a crystallographic mirror plane. The coordination geometry about Hg(II) is distorted tetragonal pyramidal, the metal atom binding strongly to two S atoms and a tertiary amino N atom (apex), and weakly to two thiocyanato N atoms.