Structure of a dinuclear cadmium complex with 2,2'-bi-pyridine, monodentate nitrate and 3-carb-oxy-6-methyl-pyridine-2-carboxyl-ate ligands: intra-molecular carbon-yl(lone pair)⋯π(ring) and nitrate(π)⋯π(ring) inter-actions.

The centrosymmetric dinuclear complex bis-(μ-3-carb-oxy-6-methyl-pyridine-2-carboxyl-ato)-κ(3) N,O (2):O (2);κ(3) O (2):N,O (2)-bis-[(2,2'-bi-pyridine-κ(2) N,N')(nitrato-κO)cadmium] methanol monosolvate, [Cd2(C8H6NO4)2(NO3)2(C10H8N2)2]·CH3OH, was isolated as colourless crystals from the reaction of Cd(NO3)2·4H2O, 6-methyl-pyridine-2,3-di-carb-oxy-lic acid (mepydcH2) and 2,2'-bi-pyridine in methanol. The asymmetric unit consists of a Cd(II) cation bound to a μ-κ(3) N,O (2):O (2)-mepydcH(-) anion, an N,N'-bidentate 2,2'-bi-pyridine group and an O-mono-dentate nitrate anion, and is completed with a methanol solvent mol-ecule at half-occupancy. The Cd complex unit is linked to its centrosymmetric image through a bridging mepydcH(-) carboxyl-ate O atom to complete the dinuclear complex mol-ecule. Despite a significant variation in the coordination angles, indicating a considerable departure from octa-hedral coordination geometry about the Cd(II) atom, the Cd-O and Cd-N distances in this complex are surprisingly similar. The crystal structure consists of O-H⋯O hydrogen-bonded chains parallel to a, further bound by C-H⋯O contacts along b to form planar two-dimensional arrays parallel to (001). The juxtaposed planes form inter-stitial columnar voids that are filled by the methanol solvent mol-ecules. These in turn inter-act with the complex mol-ecules to further stabilize the structure. A search in the literature showed that complexes with the mepydcH(-) ligand are rare and complexes reported previously with this ligand do not adopt the μ-κ(3) coordination mode found in the title compound.