Earth Alkaline Tetrathiosquarates: Syntheses and Crystal Structures of MgC4S4 · 6 H2O and CaC4S4 · 4 H2O

Concentrated aqueous solutions of magnesium chloride and calcium nitrate, respectively, allow on addition of the potassium salt of tetrathiosquarate, K₂C₄S₄ · H₂O, the isolation of the earth alkaline salts MgC₄S₄ · 6 H₂O ( 1 ) and CaC₄S₄ · 4 H₂O ( 2 ) as orange and red crystals. The crystal structure determinations ( 1 : monoclinic, C2/c, a = 17.2280(7), b = 5.9185(2), c = 13.1480(4) Å, β = 104.730(3)°, Z = 4; 2 : monoclinic, P2₁/m, a = 7.8515(3), b = 12.7705(5), c = 10.6010(4) Å, β = 93.228(2)°, Z = 4) show the presence of C₄S₄^2? ions with almost undistorted D_4h symmetry having average C–C and C–S bond lengths of 1.451Å and 1.659Å for 1 and 1.451Å and 1.655Å for 2 . The structure of 1 contains discrete, octahedral Mg(H₂O)₆]²⁺ complexes. Several O–H····O and O–H····S bridges with H····O and H····S distances of less than 2.50Å connect cations and anions. The structure of 2 is built of concatenated, edge‐sharing Ca(H₂O)₆S₂ polyhedra. The Ca²⁺ ions have the coordination number eight, C₄S₄^2? act as a chelating ligands towards Ca²⁺ with Ca–S distances of 3.14Å. The infrared and Raman spectra show bands typical for the molecular building units of the two compounds.