Structural variations in the mercury(II) bis(1,1-dithiolate)s: the crystal and molecular structure of [Hg(S2CNMe2)2]

The crystal and molecular structure of bis(dimethyldithiocarbamato)mercury(II), [Hg(S 2 CNMe 2 ) 2 ], C 6 H 12 HgN 2 S 4 has been determined at room temperature. The pale-green crystals are monoclinic, space group C2/c with unit cell dimensions a = 17.308(1) A, b = 7.558(3) A, c = 9.978(2) A, β = 113.24(1)°, Z = 4 and D x = 2.442 Mg m -3 . The structure was solved by Patterson methods and refined by a full-matrix least-squares procedure to final R = 0.041 using 729 reflections. The mercury atom in the centrosymmetric molecule exists in a diamond shaped geometry defined by two short Hg-S separations of 2.374(3) A and two weaker interactions of 2.988(3) A. The structure is compared to other [Hg(S 2 CNR 2 ) 2 ] species and it is shown that a wide variety of structural motifs may be adopted by these compounds.