Rare earth carboxylates may have chelating, bridging and chelating-bridging modes of coordination simultaneously or separatively.1-5 The title compound, catena- 6 ]·2H 2 O, was synthesized in order to study the structure and to determine the mode of coordination around Gd.In a mole ratio of 1:1, 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid and NaHCO 3 were added into hot distilled water and stirred by a magnetic stirrer until complete dissolution. A solution containing Gd 3+ was prepared by dissolving an appropriate quantity (1:3 mol of 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid) of the Gd(NO 3 ) 3 ·6H 2 O (prepared from metallic Gd) in 10 ml of water. Within two weeks, crystals were obtained by slow evaporation of the filtered final solution. A chemical diagram of the title compound is shown in Fig. 1.The coordination around a Gd ion is eightfold (Fig. 2)