Dichlorido{2-[(3,4-dimethylphenyl)iminomethyl]pyridine-κ2 N,N′}copper(II)

In the title complex, [CuCl2(C14H14N2)], the CuII atom exhibits a very distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry involving two chloride ions and two N-atom donors from the Schiff base ligand. The range for the six bond angles about the Cu2+ cation is 81.49 (11)–145.95 (9)°. The chelate ring including the CuII atom is approximately planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.039 (4) Å for one of the C atoms; this plane forms a dihedral angle of 46.69 (9)° with the CuCl2 plane.

In the title complex, [CuCl 2 (C 14 H 14 N 2 )], the Cu II atom exhibits a very distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry involving two chloride ions and two N-atom donors from the Schiff base ligand. The range for the six bond angles about the Cu 2+ cation is 81.49 (11)-145.95 (9) . The chelate ring including the Cu II atom is approximately planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.039 (4) Å for one of the C atoms; this plane forms a dihedral angle of 46.69 (9) with the CuCl 2 plane.

Comment
Diimine ligands derived from 2-aminopyridine and aniline derivatives are useful bidentate terminal ligands and some complexes with them as ligand have already been published (Mahmoudi et al., 2009;Salehzadeh et al., 2011). We report herein the crystal structure of the title complex [CuCl 2 (C 14 H 14 N 2 )] which was prepared by the reaction of CuCl 2 with the bidentate ligand N-(3,4-dimethylphenyl)-pyridine-2-ylmethyleneamine.
The molecular structure of the title complex is shown in Fig. 1. The Cu II ion is in a very distorted tetrahedral environment formed by a bis-chelating ligand and two Cl anions. The dihedral angle between the chelate plane Cu1-N1-C5-C6-N2 and the Cl1-Cu1-Cl2 plane is 46.69(9° and the range for the six bond angles about Cu1 is 81.49 (11)° (N1-Cu1-N2)-145.95 (9)°( N2-Cu1-Cl1). These values show an appreciable distortion towards square planar geometry. A comparison of the dihedral angles between the planes of the pyridine, chelate and the benzene rings indicate that the ligand is distorted from planarity, with a twist of 26.00 (17)° between the chelate (N1-C5-C6-N2) and the benzene (C7-C12) planes. The Cu-Cl and Cu-N bond dimensions compare well with the values found in other tetrahedral diimine complexes of copper(II) chloride (Mahmoudi et al., 2009;Wang & Zhong, 2009).

Experimental
The title complex was prepared by the reaction of CuCl 2 (13.4 mg, 0.1 mmol) and N-(3,4-dimethylphenyl)-(pyridine-2ylmethylene)amine (21.0 mg, 0.1 mmol) in 10 ml acetonitrile at room temperature. The green single crystals were obtained after the solution had been allowed to stand at room temperature for two days.

Refinement
Hydrogen atoms were placed in calculated positions with C-H = 0.95-0.98Å and included in the refinement with U iso (H) = 1.2U eq (C aromatic ) or 1.5U eq (C methyl ). Fig. 1. A view of the structure of the title complex, with displacement ellipsoids drawn at the 50% probability level.