Crystal structure of bis-(benzoato-κO)di-butyl-tin(IV), nBu2Sn(bzo)2

The title compound, [Sn(C4H9)2(C6H5COO)2], was synthesized in order to study the inter-action between di-n-butyl-tin(IV) oxide and some carb-oxy-lic acids. Di-n-butyl-tin(IV) dibenzoate, nBu2Sn(obz)2, exhibits the same structural features as other diorganotin(IV) dibenzoates characterized by an unsymmetrical bidentate bonding mode [Δ(Sn-O) ≃ 0.4 Å] of the two benzoate groups to tin. In a first approximation, the coordination sphere at tin resulting from the two stronger bonded O atoms [2.1227 (17) and 2.1405 (16) Å] and the two α-C atoms of the n-butyl groups [2.125 (3) and 2.129 (2) Å] is compressed to a tetra-gonal disphenoid [〈(C-Sn-C) = 148.2 (1)° and 〈(O-Sn-O) = 82.01 (6)°]. This coordination sphere is expanded by the less strongly bonded two O atoms [2.507 (2) and 2.485 (2) Å] to a substanti-ally distorted octa-hedron and by a weak inter-molecular Sn⋯O inter-action [2.943 (2) Å] to a penta-gonal bipyramid with the formation of centrosymmetric dimers. The unbranched butyl groups adopt two different conformations: anti-gauche [torsion angles: 166.0 (2)-63.9 (4)°] and gauche-gauche [65.0 (3)-56.3 (3)°]. Inter-molecular inter-actions between the dimers are restricted to O⋯H-C contacts (2.64 Å) and van der Waals inter-actions.