Relationships between Hg(II)-S bond distance and Hg(II) coordination in thiolates.

Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy is a sensitive structural probe of the coordination environments of Hg(II) with thiol (sulfhydryl) groups, and is equally applicable to solid and aqueous organic or inorganic matter. Information on the number and geometric arrangement of S ligands can be derived from metal-ligand distances because the distances vary with Hg stereochemistry and can be accurately measured by the EXAFS technique. To improve the reliability of determining coordination structures of Hg with thiol groups, correlations among Hg-S bond distance, Hg coordination, and S-Hg-S angle in homoleptic Hg(II)-thiolates were calculated from analysis of the structures of the 162 Hg(SR)n motifs (n = 2, 3, 4) contained in the Cambridge Structural Database v. 5.28. Graphical correlations of bond distance with coordination number and with bond angle show distinct ranges of values characteristic of specific structural configurations.