Tetra-μ₃-iodido-tetra­kis­[(tri-n-butyl­phosphane-κP)copper(I)]

The title complex, [Cu₄I₄(C₁₂H₂₇P)₄], crystallizes with six mol­ecules in the unit cell and with three independent one-third mol­ecule fragments, completed by application of the relevant symmetry operators, in the asymmetric unit. The tetranuclear copper core shows a tetrahedral geometry (site symmetry 3..). The I atoms also form a tetra­hedron, with I...I distances of 4.471 (1) Å. Both tetra­hedra show an orientation similar to that of a pair of self-dual platonic bodies. The edges of the I-tetra­hedral structure are capped to the face centers of the Cu-tetra­hedron and vice versa. The Cu_face...I distances are 2.18 Å (averaged) and the I_face...Cu distances are 0.78 Å (averaged). As a geometric consequence of these properties there are eight distorted trigonal–bipyramidal polyhedra evident, wherein each trigonal face builds up the equatorial site and the opposite Cu...I positions form the axial site. As expected, the n-butyl moieties are highly flexible, resulting in large elongations of their anisotropic displacement parameters. Some C atoms of the n-butyl groups were needed to fix alternative discrete disordered positions.