Polymeric strontium ranelate nona-hydrate

The title compound, poly[[μ-aqua-tetra-aqua{μ-5-[bis-(carboxyl-atometh-yl)amino]-3-carboxyl-atomethyl-4-cyano-thio-phene-2-carboxyl-ato}distrontium(II)] tetra-hydrate], [Sr(2)(C(12)H(6)N(2)O(8)S)(H(2)O)(5)]·3.79H(2)O, crystallizes with nine- and eight-coordinated Sr(2+) cations. They are bound to seven of the eight ranelate O atoms and five of the water mol-ecules. The SrO(8) and SrO(9) polyhedra are inter-connected by edge-sharing, forming hollow layers parallel to (011). The layers are, in turn, inter-connected by ranelate anions, forming a metal-organic framework (MOF) structure with channels along the a axis. The four water mol-ecules not coordinated to strontium are located in these channels and hydrogen bonded to each other and to the ranelates. Part of the water H atoms are disordered. The compound dehydrates very easily and 0.210 (4) water mol-ecules out of nine were lost during crystal mounting causing additional disorder in the water structure.