The
structures of the solvated copper(II) ion in water and nine organic
oxygen donor solvents with similar electron-pair donor ability, but
with different space-demanding properties at coordination, have been
studied by EXAFS.
N,N′
-Dimethylpropyleneurea
and
N,N,N′,N′
-tetramethylurea are sufficiently
space demanding at coordination to make the axial positions not accessible,
resulting in square-planar copper(II) solvate complexes with an intense
green color. The mean Cu–O bond distances in these two solvate
complexes are 1.939(3) and 1.935(3) Å, respectively. The best
fits of the remaining solvates, which are light blue in different
hues, are obtained with a Jahn–Teller distorted-octahedral
model consisting of four strongly bound solvent molecules in the equatorial
positions at 1.96(2) Å and two in the axial positions but with
different Cu–O
ax
bond distances: ca. 2.15 and 2.32
Å. This is in agreement with observations in solid-state structures
of compounds containing hexaaquacopper(II) complexes crystallizing
in noncentrosymmetric space groups and all reported crystal structures
containing a [Cu(H
2
O)
5
(O-ligand)] complex with
Jahn–Teller distortion. Such a structure is in agreement with
previous EPR and EXAFS studies proving the hydrated copper(II) ion
to be a noncentrosymmetric complex in aqueous solution. The refinements
of the EXAFS data of the solids [Cu(H
2
O)
6
](ClO
4
)
2
, [Cu(H
2
O)
6
](BrO
3
)
2
, [Cu(H
2
O)
6
]SiF
6
, Cu(NO
3
)
2
·2.5H
2
O, and CuSO
4
·5H
2
O gave Cu–O bond distances significantly
different from those reported in the crystallographic studies but
similar to the configuration and bond distances in the hydrated copper(II)
ion in aqueous solution. This may depend on whether the orientation
of the axial positions is random in one or three dimensions, giving
a mean structure of the solid with symmetry higher than that of the
individual complexes. This study presents the very first experimental
data from the new X-ray absorption spectroscopy beamline Balder at
the MAX IV synchrotron radiation facility in Lund, Sweden, as well
as the utilized properties of the beamline.