Crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of bis(6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-11H-pyrido[2,1-b]quinazolin-5-ium) tetrachloridozincate

The title compound, (C12H15N2)2[ZnCl4], is a salt with two symmetrically independent, essentially planar heterocyclic cations and a slightly distorted tetra-hedral chloro-zincate dianion. N-H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds link these ionic constituents into a discrete aggregate, which comprises one formula unit. The effect of hydrogen bonding is reflected in the minor distortions of the [ZnCl4]2- moiety: distances between the cation and chlorido ligands engaged in classical hydrogen bonds are significantly longer than the others. Secondary inter-actions comprise C-H⋯π hydrogen bonding and weak π-π stacking. A Hirshfeld surface analysis indicates that the most abundant contacts in packing stem from H⋯H (47.8%) and Cl⋯H/H⋯Cl (29.3%) inter-actions.