1
812
T. Ishioka et al. / Spectrochimica Acta Part A 54 (1998) 1811–1818
only for a few compounds, i.e. two crystal
forms of potassium palmitate and its high tem-
perature phase [4–6], copper caprate and capry-
late [7,8] and strontium caprate hydrate [9].
However, the crystal structure of rather com-
mon longer chain soaps such as zinc stearate
have not been reported until now. The coordi-
nation structure of the carboxylate groups
around a zinc atom in zinc stearate is not
known.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Anhydrous zinc acetate
3.1.1. Crystal structure
Anhydrous zinc acetate takes different struc-
tures by different preparation methods. Before
vibrational analysis, we need to check whether a
specimen have a known crystal structure. Two
crystal structures of anhydrous zinc acetate have
been known. One is monoclinic form in which a
zinc atom is tetrahedrally coordinated by the four
oxygens of the four bridging bidentate carboxy-
late groups, and they form two-dimensional sheets
along the bc plane [1]. Another is orthorhombic
form in which a zinc atom is coordinated as
described above, but they form three-dimensional
network [10]. The former crystal was crystallized
from dry-ethanol solution of zinc acetate dihy-
drate, but the preparation method of the latter
crystal was not reported. Fig. 1 shows three ob-
served X-ray diffraction patterns of (a–c) and one
simulated pattern of (d): (a) is a pattern of the
specimen dried at 110°C over 1 night; (b) is that
dried at 120°C over 1 week; (c) is crystallized
from dry-ethanol solution; (d) is simulated based
on the monoclinic structure. For the simulation,
the 2q values were obtained from the reported
cell-dimensions and the intensities from the re-
In this study, we discuss the coordination ge-
ometry in zinc stearate based on the vibrational
analysis of anhydrous zinc acetate.
2
. Experimental
Anhydrous zinc acetate powder was recrystal-
lized from dry-ethanol solution of zinc acetate
dihydrate (Aldrich, 99.999%). Absence of water
molecules was confirmed by an infrared spec-
trum. The specimen was unstable under mois-
ture and readily changed to the dihydrate.
Other anhydrous zinc acetate powders were ob-
tained by drying zinc acetate dihydrate at
1
10°C over a night and at 120°C over 1 week.
Dehydration of the two water molecules by
drying was confirmed by a Rigaku TG-DTA
8
101BH.
2
Zinc stearate was synthesized from sodium
ported ꢀF ꢀ values where F ’s below 50 were ne-
0
o
stearate (Sigma, 99%) in dry ethanol solution
by titrating equimolar ZnCl2 aq. slowly. The
solution was precipitated in diethylether. The
product was filtered and dried at 60°C under
vacuum. These procedures were repeated 5×.
The purity was confirmed by the IR spectrum
and the elemental analysis.
glected. Since intensity corrections were not made,
discrepancies between observed and calculated in-
tensities in the high 2q region were recognized.
The observed patterns (a) and (b) are clearly
different from (c), but (c) coincides with (d).
Hence, we confirmed to having obtained a powder
specimen (c) having the monoclinic structure. The
structures of (a) and (b) may be ascribed to the
orthorhombic one but we did not confirm it.
X-ray powder diffractions were measured by
a SHIMAZU XD-3A diffractometer with a Ni
˚
filtered Cu–K line of 1.5418 A.
h
Infrared spectra were measured by a JASCO
IR-810 spectrophotometer at room temperature.
Raman spectra were obtained at 77 K by a
JASCO R-800 double monochromator with an
3.1.2. Normal mode analysis
A normal mode analysis was made for the
monoclinic specimen as follows. The Cartesian
coordinates were evaluated according to the crys-
+
Ar laser 514.5 nm excitation line and at room
tal structure. The CH group was assumed as a
3
temperature by a JASCO RFT-200 FT-Raman
spectrometer with an Nd: YAG laser 1064 nm
excitation line.
unit atom. The unit cell contains eight asymmetric
units. We calculated the frequencies for a primi-
tive cell containing four asymmetry units of