Crystal Structure of the Mixed‐Valent Basic Mercury Nitrate HgI2(NO3)2·HgII(OH)(NO3)·HgII(NO3)2·4HgIIO [= Hg8O4(OH)(NO3)5]

Light‐yellow single crystals of the mixed‐valent mercury‐rich basic nitrate Hg₈O₄(OH)(NO₃)₅ were obtained as a by‐product at 85 °C from a melt consisting of stoichiometric amounts of (Hg^I₂)(NO₃)₂·2H₂O and Hg^II(OH)(NO₃). The title compound, represented by the more detailed formula Hg^I₂(NO₃)₂·Hg^II(OH)(NO₃)·Hg^II(NO₃)₂·4Hg^IIO, exhibits a new structure type (monoclinic, C2/c, Z = 4, a = 6.7708(7), b = 11.6692(11), c = 24.492(2) Å, β = 96.851(2)°, 2920 structure factors, 178 parameters, R1F² > 2σ(F²)] = 0.0316) and is made up of almost linear O‐Hg^II‐O] and O‐Hg^I‐Hg^I‐O] building blocks with typical Hg^II‐O distances around 2.06Å and a Hg^I‐O distance of 2.13Å. The Hg₂²⁺ dumbbell exhibits a characteristic Hg‐Hg distance of 2.5079(7) Å. The different types of mercury‐oxygen units form a complex three‐dimensional network exhibiting large cavities which are occupied by the nitrate groups. The NO₃^? anions show only weak interactions between the nitrate oxygen atoms and the mercury atoms which are at distances > 2.6Å from one another. One of the three crystallographically independent nitrate groups is disordered.