The crystal and molecular structure of dioxo bis (2,2,6,6 - tetramethylheptane -3,5 dionato)methanol uranium (VI)

UO₂(thd)₂ CH₃OH (thd = tetramethylheptane-3,5-dione) is monoclinic, with a = 10.602(11), b = 22.883(20), c = 12.054(11) Å and β = 105.90(3)°, Z = 4 and space group P2₁/c. The structure, which is molecular, was solved by conventional Patterson and Fourier techniques with 3173 independent (hkl) reflexions collected with MoKα radiation (λ = 0.7107 Å), and refined to R = σ(|Fo|-|Fc|)/σ|Fo| = 0.093. The uranium coordination polyhedron is a pentagonal bipyramid, with UO (carbonyl) distances between 2.25 and 2.37 Å and a longer UO (methanol) distance of 2.50 Å. The uranyl group is linear (uranyl angle 179.3(8)°). The pentagon oxygen atoms and uranium do not form a planar system, as there are deviations of up to 0.17 Å from the mean plane. If the methanol oxygen atom O(7) is excluded from the plane calculation, the remaining atoms are more nearly planar. The four carbonyl oxygens are coplanar, with uranium 0.08 Å from their plane. The methanol oxygen is 0.28(4) Å from this second plane.The two (thd) molecules, excluding methyl carbons, are planar and are inclined at 43.6° to each other in a boat form and at 29.1 and 14.5° to the pentagonal plane. The methanol CO bond is inclined at 133° to the UO bond, confirming the ligand is the neutral CH₃OH molecule, and not CHO^?₃.