Nature 178, 1192 - 1193 (24 November 1956); doi:10.1038/1781192a0

Structure of Cupric Salts of Mono-carboxylic Fatty Acids

RYUTARO TSUCHIDA, SHOICHIRO YAMADA & HIROJI NAKAMURA

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Osaka University, Japan. Sept. 17.

IN a previous communication¹ on the structure of cupric formate, acetate and propionate, we concluded that the latter two compounds, both in organic solvents and in crystalline state, consist of dimeric molecules, Cu₂(RCOO)₂.X ₂, X being a solvent molecule, in which the copper-to-copper linkage might be expected. The following facts were then assumed to support the above conclusion: (1) the acetate and propionate show an absorption band of a special kind at about 80 10¹³ c./s., which was ascribed to the possible copper-to-copper linkage; (2) the absorption of the special kind is greatly polarized along the direction binding the two copper atoms within a molecule. This is the reverse of the polarization property with the band at 43 10¹³ c./s.

1. Tsuchida, R. , and Yamada, S. , Nature, 176, 1171 (1955). | ISI | ChemPort |
2. See, for example, Bellamy, L. J. , "The Infra-red Spectra of Complex Molecules", 150 (Methuen, London, 1954).