Syntheses and crystal structures of three cesium salts: Cesium 5-sulfosalicylate, cesium 3,5-dinitrosalicylate and cesium 2,4-dinitrophenoxide monohydrate

In an attempt to probe a potential template role of the large alkali-metal cation cesium in organization of biorelevant ligands, 5-sulfosalicylate, 3,5-dinitrosalicylate and 2,4-dinitrophenol complexes of cesium were prepared and structurally investigated. The structures of cesium 5-sulfosalicylate, cesium 3,5-dinitrosalicylate and cesium 2,4-dinitrophenoxide monohydrate have been determined through X-ray diffraction analysis. The 5-sulfosalicylate anion has lost the proton at the −SO₃H group while the 3,5-dinitrosalicylate anion at −COOH group but both retains the usual intermolecular hydrogen bond between phenolic and carboxylic oxygen. In cesium 2,4-dinitrophenoxide monohydrate, the Cs⁺ cation is 12-coordinate by O atoms in anions and water molecules while the metal atoms in cesium 5-sulfosalicylate and cesium 3,5-dinitrosalicylate have coordination numbers 10 and 11, respectively, with an irregular coordination sphere made up exclusively of oxygen atoms. Even more in cesium 2,4-dinitrophenoxide monohydrate, the water molecules are in rare triply bridging positions between these cations. Both complexes have layer structures containing the cations and polar groups of the ligands in core domains sandwiched by the aromatic rings above and below. The organization of all layer structures appears to be governed mainly by steric effects and electrostatic forces with very little directional influence of the cations.