Tris(2-succinimidoethyl)amine hydrate (1/0.075)

The title compound, C18H24N4O6.0.075H(2)O, (I), was prepared as part of a r esearch programme to prepare and identify new tripodal ligands which exhibi t instability at low pH, thereby releasing coordinated metal cations under such conditions. Each molecule lies on a crystallographic threefold axis wi th the three arms arranged in the form of a claw. Angles within the five-me mbered succinimide ring, where the r.m.s. deviation of the five atoms from the least-squares ring plane is only 0.004 Angstrom, vary from 104.8 (3)deg rees at a methylene C atom to 112.7 (3)degrees at the formally sp(2) N atom . The structure contains a partially occupied disordered water molecule, th e source of which is presumably the water produced as a by-product of the s ynthetic reaction.