Crystal Structure of Tris(acetylacetonato)molybdenum(III)

The crystal structure of the title compound, [MO(C₅H₇O₂)₃], has been determined at 295(1) K by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods and refined by least squares to a residual of 0·040 for 2933 'observed' reflections. Crystals are monoclinic, P2₁/n, a 16·515(4), b 13·052(4), c 8·152(2) Å, ß 90 · 74(2)°, Z 4. The structure comprises discrete molecules of the above complex, the molecular point symmetry being a good approximation to D₃, with 〈Mo-O〉 2·07₁Å, (intraligand) 〈O-M-O〉 87·7°. The status of the structure is examined with regard to the polymorphism of the symmetrical tris(acetylacetonato)metal(III) complexes, and examined in regard to the anomalous magnetism reported in the preceding paper.