DOI: 10.1051/jp2:1992263
J. Phys. II France 2 (1992) 2237-2253

The structures of the crystalline phase and columnar mesophase of rhodium (II) heptanoate and of its binary mixture with copper (II) heptanoate probed by EXAFS

M. Inb-Elhaj¹, D. Guillon¹, A. Skoulios¹, P. Maldivi², A. M. Giroud-Godquin² and J.-C. Marchon<sup>2

1</sup>  Groupe des Matériaux Organiques, Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg, ICS, 6 rue Boussingault, 67083 Strasbourg Cedex, France
²  Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination URA 1194 CNRS, DRFMC/SESAM, Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble, B.P. 85X, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France

(Received 19 May 1992, accepted in final form 4 September 1992)

Abstract
EXAFS was used to investigate the local structure of the polar spines of rhodium (II) soaps in the columnar liquid crystalline state. It was also used to ascertain the degree of blending of the cores in binary mixtures of rhodium (II) and copper (II) soaps. For the pure rhodium soaps, the columns are shown to result from the stacking of binuclear metal-metal bonded dirhodium tetracarboxylate units bonded to one another by apical ligation of the metal atom of each complex with one of the oxygen atoms of the adjacent molecule. Mixtures of rhodium (II) and copper (II) soaps give a hexagonal columnar mesophase in which pure rhodium and pure copper columns are randomly distributed.

© Les Editions de Physique 1992