[Pd(CH3COO)2]n from X-ray powder diffraction data.

The water-insoluble title compound, catena-poly[palladium(II)-di-mu-acetato-kappa4O:O'], [Pd(C2H3O2)2]n, was obtained from a nitratopalladium solution and acetic acid as a pale-pink powder. Ab initio crystal structure determination was carried out using X-ray powder diffraction techniques. Patterson and Fourier syntheses were used for atom location and the Rietveld technique was applied for the final structure refinement. The structure consists of palladium acetate complexes connected into polymeric chains running along b, in which two Pd atoms are bridged by two acetate groups that are in a cis configuration with respect to one another. The unique Pd atom lies on a site with 2/m symmetry and the acetate moieties have imposed m symmetry; these are joined into infinite chains running along the b direction. The shortest Pd...Pd distance in the row is 2.9192 (1) A. The planes of adjacent palladium complexes are inclined towards each other, the angle between the planes being approximately 30 degrees.