Crystal structure of an ethylene sorption complex of fully vacuum-dehydrated fully Ag+-exchanged zeolite X (FAU). Silver atoms have reduced ethylene to give CH2 2- carbanions at framework oxide vacancies.

The crystal structure of an ethylene sorption complex of fully vacuum-dehydrated fully Ag(+)-exchanged zeolite X (FAU), a = 24.865(2) A, has been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques in the cubic space group Fd at 21 degrees C. It is very different from the ethylene complex of Ag(92)-X that had been dehydrated at 400 degrees C in flowing oxygen, as were the two dehydrated structures. The crystal was prepared by ion exchange in a flowing stream of aqueous 0.05 M AgNO(3) for 3 days, followed by dehydration at 400 degrees C and 2 x 10(-6) Torr for 2 days, followed by exposure to 300 Torr of zeolitically dry ethylene gas for 2 h at 21 degrees C. The structure was determined in this atmosphere and was refined using all data to the final error indices (based upon the 534 reflections for which F(o) > 4sigma(F(o))) R(1) = 0.062 and wR(2) = 0.135. In this structure, per unit cell, 14 Ag(+) ions were found at the octahedral site I (Ag-O = 2.611(9) A), and 32 partially reduced Ag(+) ions fill two different site I' positions deep in the sodalite cavities (Ag-O = 2.601(13) and 2.618(12) A). The sodalite cavities host two different cationic silver clusters. In about 47% of sodalite units, eight silver atoms form interpenetrating tetrahedra, Ag(8)(n+) (n = 4 is suggested), with T(d)() symmetry. The other 53% of the sodalite units host cyclo-Ag(4)(m+) (m = 2 is suggested) cations with near S(4) symmetry. These clusters are very similar to those in vacuum-dehydrated Ag(92)-X. Thirty-two Ag(+) ions fill the single 6-rings, 15 at site II' (Ag-O = 2.492(10) A), and 17 at site II (Ag-O = 2.460(9) A). The latter 17 lie in supercages where each forms a lateral pi-complex with an ethylene molecule. In turn, each C(2)H(4) molecule forms two cis electrostatic hydrogen bonds to framework oxygens. The remaining 14 Ag+ ions occupy three different II' sites. Vacuum dehydration had caused substantial decomposition: per unit cell, 30 of the 92 Ag(+) ions were reduced and 15 of the 384 framework oxide ions were oxidized to O2(g), leaving lattice vacancies. The sorption of C(2)H(4) at 21 degrees C reoxidized about 7 of the 30 Ag(0) atoms to Ag(+) and reduced 1.75 ethylene molecules to give CH(2)(2-) groups which refilled 3.5 of these 15 lattice vacancies. The remaining vacancies may have been filled with H(2)C=C(2-) ions. The unit cell formula, which originally contained 384 oxygen atoms, may be |Ag(92)(C2H4)17|[Si(100)Al(92)O(369)(CH2)3.5] or |Ag(92)H(23)(C2H4)17|[Si(100)Al(92)O(369)(CH2)3.5(C2H2)11.5].