Octahedral hexanuclear complexes involving light lanthanide ions

Two new hexanuclear complexes involving two of the lightest lanthanide ions have been synthesized and structurally described. Their chemical formula is [Ln6(μ6-O)(μ3-OH)8(NO3)6(H2O)14] · 2NO3 · 2H2O with Ln = Pr or Nd. The structure has been solved for the Pr3+-containing compound. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group P21/n (no. 14) with a = 12.4163(2) Å, b = 10.51210(10) Å, c = 16.0389(2) Å, β = 95.7810(6)° and Z = 4. The chemical and thermal stabilities of both the compounds have been studied. These studies reveal that they can be used as molecular chemical precursors for further materials synthesis. To the best of our knowledge, this praseodymium-containing hexanuclear complex is the first ever reported.