Crystal structure and characterization of a new copper(II) chloride dimer with meth­yl(pyridin-2-yl­methyl­idene)amine

The new copper(II) complex, namely, di-μ-chlorido-bis­{chlorido­[meth­yl(pyri­din-2-yl­methyl­idene)amine-κ2N,N′]copper(II)}, [Cu2Cl4(C7H8N2)2], (I), with the ligand 2-pyridyl­methyl-N-methyl­imine (L, a product of Schiff base condensation between methyl­amine and 2-pyridine­carbaldehyde) is built of discrete centrosymmetric dimers. The coordination about the CuII ion can be described as distorted square pyramidal. The base of the pyramid consists of two nitro­gen atoms from the bidentate chelate L [Cu—N = 2.0241 (9), 2.0374 (8) A] and two chlorine atoms [Cu—Cl = 2.2500 (3), 2.2835 (3) A]. The apical position is occupied by another Cl atom with the apical bond being significantly elongated at 2.6112 (3) A. The trans angles of the base are 155.16 (3) and 173.79 (2)°. The Cu⋯Cu separation in the dimer is 3.4346 (3) A. In the crystal structure, the loosely packed dimers are arranged in stacks propagating along the a axis. The X-band polycrystalline 77 K EPR spectrum of (I) demonstrates a typical axial pattern characteristic of mononuclear CuII complexes. Compound (I) is redox active and shows a cyclic voltammetric response with E1/2 = −0.037 V versus silver–silver chloride electrode (SSCE) assignable to the reduction peak of CuII/CuI in methanol as solvent.