Synthesis and crystal structure of [Tb4(H2O)2](C2O4)2(C5H6O4)4

A terbium complex associating two ligands, oxalate and glutarate, was prepared under hydrothermal conditions at 200°C by treating an aqueous suspension of terbium oxalate decahydrate with glutaric acid and guanidinium carbonate. Its structure was solved by X-ray diffraction on a single crystal. It crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁ with lattice constants, a = 9.514(1) Å, b = 9.0681(8) Å, c = 19.702(2) Å, and = 97.90(1)°. The terbium atoms and the oxalate ligands build dense chains which are connected by one side of the carboxylic group of some glutarate ligands, thus forming a sheet at the c level 0 and 1/2. These sheets are bridged by glutarate groups. The terbium atoms are ninefold coordinate with nine oxygen atoms of the ligands or with one water molecule and eight oxygen atoms of the ligands. Each polyhedron of the terbium atoms share one edge and one face of oxygen atoms with the two neighboring ones. The oxalate ligands are bischelating and bismonodentate. The coordination scheme of glutarate differs: either they are bismonodentate from one side and chelating and monodentate from the other side or they are chelating and monodentate from both sides.