A restudy of the crystal structure of tetraaquastrontium dicitratoborate trihydrate

The crystal structure of Sr(H₂O)₄[(C₁₂H₁₁O₁₄)B] · 3H₂O (I) has been restudied and determined with a higher accuracy. The crystals are monoclinic, space group P2₁/n, a = 11.405(1) Å, b = 18.814(1) Å, c = 11.987(1) Å, β = 110.79(1)°; Z = 4. The structure was refined by full matrix least-squares calculation to R = 0.0547 on 5343 unique reflections with R _int = 0.0419. The structural units of crystal I are the Sr²⁺ cation, seven water molecules, and doubly charged dicitratoborate anion, which is not equivalent to the singly charged complex dicitratoborate anion identified previously in the crystal structures of complexes of boric and citric acids. The coordination polyhedron of the Sr²⁺ cation is a distorted dodecahedron composed of four O atoms of coordinated water molecules and four O atoms of two complex anions. The crystal packing of I is layered. Thirteen independent O-H…O and O-H…, O′ contacts form an intricate system of hydrogen bonds.