Bis[2-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)phenolato]dimethanolmanganese(III) chloride

In the title compound, [Mn(C13H9N2O)2(CH3OH)2]Cl, the MnIII atom (site symmetry ) is coordinated by two N,O-bidentate 2-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)phenolate ligands and two methanol molecules, to generate a distorted trans-MnN2O4 octahedral geometry for the metal ion. The dihedral angle between the aromatic ring systems in the ligand is 16.0 (3)°. In the crystal structure, the complex cations and chloride anions are linked by O—H⋯Cl and N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds. The chloride ion lies on a crystallographic twofold axis.

In the title compound, [Mn(C 13 H 9 N 2 O) 2 (CH 3 OH) 2 ]Cl, the Mn III atom (site symmetry 1) is coordinated by two N,Obidentate 2-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)phenolate ligands and two methanol molecules, to generate a distorted trans-MnN 2 O 4 octahedral geometry for the metal ion. The dihedral angle between the aromatic ring systems in the ligand is 16.0 (3) . In the crystal structure, the complex cations and chloride anions are linked by O-HÁ Á ÁCl and N-HÁ Á ÁCl hydrogen bonds. The chloride ion lies on a crystallographic twofold axis.

Related literature
For our previous work on manganese complexes, see: Li et al. (2000Li et al. ( , 2002.

Comment
As part of the ongoing study of manganese complexes (Li et al., 2000(Li et al., , 2002, we now report the crystal structure of the title compound (I).
The geometric parameters of (I) are listed in Table 1. The molecular conformation is illustrated in Fig. 1 The hydrogen-bonding geometry in (I) is listed in Table 2  2-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)phenol (0.2 mmol) was disolved in 8 ml of methanol and MnCl 2 (0.1 mmol) in 2 ml of water.
Mixing the two solutions and the solution turn to black immediately. Stirring the solution for 10 minutes at room temperature.
Filtered, the filtrate was left at room temperature and black slabs of (I) appeared from the solution after three days, by slow evaporation of the mixing solvent.

Special details
Geometry. All esds (except the esd in the dihedral angle between two l.s. planes) are estimated using the full covariance matrix. The cell esds are taken into account individually in the estimation of esds in distances, angles and torsion angles; correlations between esds in cell parameters are only used when they are defined by crystal symmetry. An approximate (isotropic) treatment of cell esds is used for estimating esds involving l.s. planes.
Refinement. Refinement of F 2 against ALL reflections. The weighted R-factor wR and goodness of fit S are based on F 2 , conventional R-factors R are based on F, with F set to zero for negative F 2 . The threshold expression of F 2 > σ(F 2 ) is used only for calculating Rfactors(gt) etc. and is not relevant to the choice of reflections for refinement. R-factors based on F 2 are statistically about twice as large as those based on F, and R-factors based on ALL data will be even larger.

Fractional atomic coordinates and isotropic or equivalent isotropic displacement parameters (Å 2 )
x y z U iso */U eq