The crystal and molecular structure of oxo-bis[tribenzylgermanium(IV)]

Crystals of oxo-bistribenzylgermanium(IV)], O(PhCH₂)₃Ge]₂, are rhombohedral, space group R$\text{3}$, having a = 9.621(2) Å, α = 85.48(3)°. The structure was solved by Patterson methods using diffractometer data and refined by full-matrix least squares to R = 0.0876. The structure consists of molecules lying along the 3-fold axis of the unit cell, in which the GeOGe fragments are strictly linear and centrosymmetric. The GeO distance is 1.730(1) Å and the GeC distance is 1.980(5) Å.