Crystal structure of di-mu-chlorido-bis[dichlorido-bis(methanol-kappa O)iridium(III)] dihydrate: a surprisingly simple chloridoiridium(III) dinuclear complex with methanol ligands

The reaction between IrCl3 center dot xH(2)O in methanol led to the formation of small amounts of the title compound, [Ir2Cl6(CH3OH)(4)]center dot 2H(2)O, which consists of two IrCl4O2 octahedra sharing an edge via chloride bridges. The molecule lies across an inversion center. Each octahedron can be envisioned as being comprised of four chloride ligands in the equatorial plane with methanol ligands in the axial positions. A lattice water molecule is strongly hydrogen-bonded to the coordinating methanol ligands and weak interactions with coordinating chloride ligands lead to the formation of a three-dimensional network. This is a surprising structure given that, while many reactions of iridium chloride hydrate are carried out in alcoholic solvents, especially methanol and ethanol, this is the first structure of a chloridoiridium compound with only methanol ligands.