Crystal and molecular structure of dimeric dimethyltin nitrate hydroxide [di-µ-hydroxo-bis(dimethylnitratotin)]

Crystals of the title compound are triclinic, space group B, a= 6·53(2), b= 8·73(2), c= 11·20(3)Å, α= 86·5(3), β= 89·2(4), γ= 88·3(3)°. Z= 2. The structure was determined from photographic data by Patterson and Fourier methods and refined by full-matrix least-squares to R 0·113 for 844 unique observed reflections. The structure consists of centrosymmetric hydroxo-bridged dimers, with (SnO)2 rings, five-co-ordinate tin, and unidentate nitrate ligands. Except for the methyl groups, all the atoms in each dimeric molecule are approximately coplanar.