A bis-chelate o-vanillin-2-ethano­lamine copper(II) complex bearing both imine and amine forms of the ligand

The mol­ecular bis-chelate complex (2-{[(2-hy­droxy­ethyl-κO)amino-κN]meth­yl}-6-meth­oxy­phenolato-κO)(2-{[(2-hy­droxy­eth­yl)imino-κN]meth­yl}-6-meth­oxy­phenolato-κO)copper(II), [Cu(C10H14NO3)(C10H12NO3)] or [Cu(HLim)(HLam); HLim = C10H14NO3; HLam = C10H12NO3, represents the first compound containing a salicyl­idene-2-ethano­lamine type ligand in both imino HLim (Schiff base) and amino HLam (reduced Schiff base) forms that has been structurally characterized on the basis of X-ray data. Two mol­ecules of the monodeprotonated ligands coordinate the CuII ion in an (N,Ophen)-bidentate and an (N,Ophen,Oalc)-tridentate fashion in the case of the imino and amino forms, respectively. The shape of the CuN2O3 coordination polyhedron is a distorted square-pyramid (geometry index τ5 = 0.26). Inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, involving H atoms of the amino and hy­droxy­ethyl groups, create a two-dimensional supra­molecular array extending parallel to (010).