The crystal structure of the deca-aluminum alkoxide cluster AlO(OH) ( = 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexa-fluoro-propan-2-olate).

In the title centrosymmetric cluster compound, hexa-kis-(μ-1,1,1,3,3,3-hexa-fluoro-propan-2-olato)octa-kis-(1,1,1,3,3,3-hexa-fluoro-propan-2-olato)octa-μ-hydroxido-di-μ-oxido-di-μ-oxido-deca-aluminium, [Al(CHFO)(OH)O] (CHAlFO), there is a central μ-OAl moiety, which has six edges of which three contain μ()-1,1,1,3,3,3-hexa-fluoro-propan-2-olate () ligands and two contain μ-OH groups each bridging two Al atoms along an edge. The sixth edge is occupied by a group containing a fifth aluminium atom [bis-μ(OH)-, μ(O)-Al]. This last μ(O) group generates a centrosymmetric AlO dimer, thus the μ(O) atom is linked to two Al atoms in the asymmetric unit as well as a third Al atom through a center of inversion. Three of the hexa-fluoro-propyl groups of the CHFO ligands are disordered and each was refined with two conformations with occupancies of 0.770 (3)/0.230 (3), 0.772 (3)/0.228 (3) and 0.775 (3)/0.225 (3). The five unique Al centers have coordination numbers varying from four to six with bond angles that show considerable distortions from regular geometry: for the four-coordinate atom, τ' = 0.886, while three Al atoms are five-coordinate (τ values = 0.098, 1.028, and 0.338) and one is distorted six-coordinate with O-Al-O bond angles ranging from 74.22 (9) to 171.59 (12)°. The geometry about the central O atom in the OAl block is significantly distorted tetra-hedral (τ' = 0.630) with Al-O-Al angles ranging from 95.50 (9) to 147.74 (13)°. The extended structure features numerous O-H⋯O, O-H⋯F, C-H⋯O and C-H⋯F hydrogen bonds and short F⋯F contacts.