Monomeric Square-Planar Cobalt(II) Acetylacetonate: Mystery or Mistake?

No evidence was found for the existence of a previously reported mononuclear square-planar form of unsolvated cobalt(II) acetylacetonate, Co(acac)(2), in all samples that have been obtained by using a variety of preparative techniques and crystallization conditions. It was confirmed that the structure of tetramer Co-4(acac)(8), reported back in 1964 by Cotton and Elder, is correct, the synthesis is reproducible, and the bulk material corresponds to single-crystal data. Additionally, the title compound can be isolated in tetranuclear form by reducing cobalt(III) acetylacetonate with cobalt metal in solvent-free conditions or by crystallization from a hexanes solution. At the same time, from noncoordinating halogenated solvents, Co(acac)(2) crystallizes as a trinuclear core molecule, in which all Co atoms also exhibit octahedral coordination. From coordinating solvents such as ethanol, cobalt(II) acetylacetonate was found to appear in the form of its bis-adduct Co(acac)(2)(EtOH)(2). On the basis of observations made in this work and the details presented in the original paper, we suggest that the reported mononuclear structure of square-planar acetylacetonate should likely contain copper instead of cobalt.