Crystal structure of di-μ-chlorido-bis­[di­chlorido­bis­(methanol-κO)iridium(III)] dihydrate: a surprisingly simple chlorido­iridium(III) dinuclear complex with methanol ligands

The reaction between IrCl(3)·xH(2)O in methanol led to the formation of small amounts of the title compound, [Ir(2)Cl(6)(CH(3)OH)(4)]·2H(2)O, which consists of two IrCl(4)O(2) octa­hedra sharing an edge via chloride bridges. The mol­ecule lies across an inversion center. Each octa­hedron can be envisioned as being comprised of four chloride ligands in the equatorial plane with methanol ligands in the axial positions. A lattice water mol­ecule is strongly hydrogen-bonded to the coordinating methanol ligands and weak inter­actions with coordinating chloride ligands lead to the formation of a three-dimensional network. This is a surprising structure given that, while many reactions of iridium chloride hydrate are carried out in alcoholic solvents, especially methanol and ethanol, this is the first structure of a chloridoiridium compound with only methanol ligands.