Synthesis and crystal structure determination of aluminium hydroxide methane-sulfonate, Al(OH)(CH3SO3)2.

catena-Poly[aluminium(III)-μ-hydroxido-κ2 O:O-di-μ-methane-sulfonato-κ4 O:O'], [Al(OH)(CH3SO3)2] n , was prepared by mild hydro-thermal synthesis at 523 K and crystallizes as millimetre-sized clear and colourless needles. The asymmetric unit contains half of the repeating structure, one-dimensional (AlO6)∞ chains corner sharing through the axial hydroxyl group with a bend of ∼137ο. The extended structure shows the chains are connected through weak meth-yl-hydrogen bonding in the [001] direction and strong hydrox-yl-hydrogen bonding in the [100] direction. This is the second aluminium-based methane-sulfonate salt reported to date.