Peculiarities of metal—ligand bonding in europium trinitrate complexes: a viewpoint of comparative charge density analysis in crystals

The results of high-resolution X-ray diffraction studies of the charge density distribution in crystals of three europium trinitrate complexes, including those with N-donor "antenna"-ligands are summarized. It is shown that the charge transfer between lanthanide ion and "antenna" correlates with the energy of interaction between the metal and nitrate anion, and the total stabilization energy of the metal polyhedron depends weakly on the coordination number of the metal and the nature of the ligands. The statistical treatment of the crystal structural data for similar complexes and the energies of the corresponding metal—ligand interactions allowed us to suggest the stability of mer-arrangement of the coordinated nitrate anions and to propose a semiempirical relationship to estimate the energy of Eu—O interactions. The influence of vibration processes on the electron density distribution in the EuO2NO fragment was additionally considered, and a feasibility to estimate the energy of interaction between the ligand and lanthanide ion at non-stationary points on the potential energy surface was validated.