A crystal chemical analysis of naphthalene-1-, naphthalene-2-, and anthracene-9-carboxylate-containing complexes of 3d metals was performed within the framework of the stereoatomic model of crystal structure using the characteristics of Voronoi–Dirichlet polyhedra. The types of coordination of naphthalene-1-, naphthalene-2-, and anthracene-9-carboxylate anions towards 3d metals were considered. The influence of the coordination type on the characteristics of M–O bonds in the crystal structures was revealed. Using the 18-electron rule, a quantitative assessment of the electron-donating ability of naphthalene-1-, naphthalene-2-, and anthracene-9-carboxylate anions towards 3d metals was given, which predictably decreases across the period from left to right. For doubly charged 3d metal ions, correlation dependencies were established between the electron-donating ability of the oxygen atoms of naphthalene-1-, naphthalene-2-, and anthracene-9-carboxylate ions and the group number of the 3d-metal.
Karasev et al. (Sat,) studied this question.