The crystal and molecular structure of DI-trans-β-styrylmercury

The structure of di-trans-β-styrylmercury has been determined by single crystal X-ray methods from counter data. The compound crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pbcn with unit cell dimensions a 15.413(6), b 11.161(9), c 7.668(5) Å, V 1319(1) ų, D_calc 2.049 g/cm³, and Z = 4. The crystal was solved by conventional heavy atom techniques. The crystal consists of individual molecular units with the mercury atom located on a two fold axis of symmetry. The CHgC fragment is nearly linear with an angle of 178°. The β-styryl groups are oriented so that a dihedral angle of 66.8° is formed between the planes defined by HgC(1)C(2) and HgC(1)′C(2)′ fragments. The HgC bond distance is 2.07(4) Å.