An unprecedented binuclear cadmium di-thio-carbamate adduct: bis-[μ2-N-(2-hydroxy-eth-yl)-N-iso-propyl-carbamodi-thio-ato-κ3S:S,S']bis-{[N-(2-hydroxy-eth-yl)-N-iso-propyl-carbamodi-thio-ato-κ2S,S'](3-{(1E)-[(E)-2-(pyridin-3-yl-methyl-idene)hydrazin-1-yl-idene]meth-yl}pyridine-κN)cadmium]} dihydrate.

The asymmetric unit in the title binuclear compound, [Cd(C6H12NOS2)2(C12H10N4)]2·2H2O, comprises a CdII atom, two di-thio-carbamate (dtc) anions, a monodentate 3-pyridine-aldazine ligand and a lattice water mol-ecule. The binuclear mol-ecule is constructed by the application of inversion symmetry. One dtc ligand simultaneously chelates one cadmium atom and bridges the centrosymmetric mate, while the other dtc ligand is chelating only. This leads to a centrosymmetric [Cd(dtc)2]2 core to which are appended two 3-pyridine-aldazine ligands. The resulting NS5 donor set is based on an octa-hedron. The three-dimensional mol-ecular packing is sustained by hydroxyl-O-H(hydrox-yl) and water-O-H⋯O(hydrox-yl) hydrogen bonding, leading to supra-molecular layers parallel to (101) which are connected by water-O-H⋯N(pyrid-yl) hydrogen bonding; additional C-H⋯O, S π(chelate ring) inter-actions are also evident. The retention of the central [Cd(dtc)2]2 core upon adduct formation is unprecedented in the structural chemistry of the zinc-triad di-thio-carbamates.