Crystal structure of bis-(4-nitro-aniline-κN (1))(5,10,15,20-tetra-phenyl-por-phy-rin-ato-κ(4) N)cobalt(III) chloride di-chloro-methane monosolvate.

The reaction of [Co(III)(TPP)Cl] (TPP is the dianion of 5,10,15,20-tetra-phenyl-porphyrin) with an excess of 4-nitro-aniline in di-chloro-methane leads to the title compound, [Co(III)(C44H28N4)(C6H6N2O2)2]Cl·CH2Cl2. The Co(III) ion lies on an inversion centre and is octa-hedrally coordinated by two N atoms of the NH2 groups of the two 4-nitro-aniline trans-axial ligands and four pyrrole N atoms of the porphyrin. The asymmetric unit contains one half of the [Co(III)(TPP)(4-nitro-aniline)2](+) ion complex, one chloride counter-ion (lying on a twofold rotation axis) and one half di-chloro-methane solvent mol-ecule, where the C atom lies on a twofold rotation axis. The average equatorial Co-N(pyrrole) distance (Co-Np) is 1.982 (2) Å and the axial Co-N(4-nitro-aniline) bond length is 2.006 (2) Å. The crystal packing is stabilized by an N-H⋯Cl hydrogen bond between the N atom of the amino group of the 4-nitro-aniline axial ligand and the chloride counter-ion. The supra-molecular architecture is further stabilized by weak C-H⋯π inter-actions.