metal-organic papers m1942 Chesman et al.  (C 4 H 12 N)[La(NO 3 ) 6 ]CH 4 O doi:10.1107/S1600536806028480 Acta Cryst. (2006). E62, m1942–m1943 Acta Crystallographica Section E Structure Reports Online ISSN 1600-5368 Tetramethylammonium hexanitratolanthanate(III) methanol solvate Anthony S. R. Chesman, David R. Turner,* Glen B. Deacon and Stuart R. Batten School of Chemistry, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia Correspondence e-mail: david.turner@sci.monash.edu.au Key indicators Single-crystal X-ray study T = 123 K Mean (O–C) = 0.012 A ˚ R factor = 0.055 wR factor = 0.145 Data-to-parameter ratio = 19.1 For details of how these key indicators were automatically derived from the article, see http://journals.iucr.org/e. Received 7 June 2006 Accepted 21 July 2006 # 2006 International Union of Crystallography All rights reserved The title compound, [(CH 3 ) 4 N] 3 [La(NO 3 ) 6 ]MeOH, contains an anionic hexanitratolanthanate(III) complex with the nitrate ligands octahedrally disposed around the metal. The incorporated methanol solvent is involved in hydrogen bonding to one nitrate ligand. Comment During investigations into the synthesis of rare-earth pseu- dohalide complexes, the use of nitrate reagents has instead yielded new rare-earth nitrato complexes. The hexa- nitratolanthanate(III) species is highly symmetrical, based around a 12-coordinate lanthanum centre, although this is not reflected in the overall symmetry of the structure. The chelating nitrate ligands are octahedrally disposed around the central lanthanum. All Ln—O bonds lie within a narrow length range and the O—Ln—O bite angles are all similar (see Table 1). The nitrate ligands arrange themselves so as to be mutually perpendicular around the metal centre. This arrangement of the ligands is seen in other examples of hexanitratolanthante(III) complexes, for example in [La(NO 3 ) 6 ] 3 -containing structures with terpyridinium (Drew et al., 2000) and a methylpyridinium-based counter-cation (Jing et al., 1994). Less regular nitrate arrangements have also been observed, such as in the tri-n-butylammonium structure (Yan et al., 1995). One methanol molecule is incorporated into the structure and is involved in only a single interaction with a nitrate ligand. Experimental Tetramethylammonium nitrosodicyanamide (50 mg, 0.30 mmol), copper(II) nitrate (36 mg, 0.19 mmol) and lanthanum(III) nitrate hexahydrate (46 mg, 0.11 mmol) were dissolved in methanol (5 ml).