Tetraammine(carbonato-κ2O,O′)cobalt(III) nitrate: a powder X-ray diffraction study

Practical chemistry courses at universities very frequently propose the synthesis and characterization of [Co(CO3)(NH3)4]NO3, but this goal is never achieved since students only obtain the hemihydrated form. The anhydrous form can be prepared, however, and its structure is presented here. Similar to the hemihydrate form, the anhydrous phase contains the CoIII ion in an octahedral O2N4 coordination by a chelating carbonate group and four ammine ligands. The structure reveals an intricate array of N—H...O hydrogen bonds involving both the chelating and the non-chelating O atoms of the carbonate ligand as hydrogen-bond acceptors of the amine H atoms, which are also involved in hydrogen-bonding interactions with the nitrate O atoms. The structure of the anhydrous form is close to that of the hemihydrate phase, suggesting a probable topotactic reaction with relatively small rotations and translations of the [Co(CO3)(NH3)4]+ and NO3− groups during the dehydration process, which produces an unusual volume increase of 4.3%