catena-Poly[[bis(methanol-κO)bis(thiocyanato-κN)cobalt(II)]-μ-1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)propane-κ2 N,N′]

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Co(NCS)2(C13H14N2)(CH3OH)2], consists of one cobalt(II) cation located on a center of inversion, one half of a 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)propane ligand located on a twofold rotation axis, as well as one thiocyanate anion and one methanol molecule in general positions. The cobalt(II) cation is coordinated by two terminal N-bonded thiocyanate anions and two N-bonded 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)propane ligands, as well as two O atoms of methanol molecules in a slightly distorted octahedral coordination mode. Adjacent cations are connected into chains parallel to [10] by the bridging 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)propane ligands. These chains are connected through intermolecular O—H⋯S hydrogen bonds between the methanol hydroxy group and the terminal S atom of the thiocyanate anion.

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Co(NCS) 2 -(C 13 H 14 N 2 )(CH 3 OH) 2 ], consists of one cobalt(II) cation located on a center of inversion, one half of a 1,3-bis-(pyridin-4-yl)propane ligand located on a twofold rotation axis, as well as one thiocyanate anion and one methanol molecule in general positions. The cobalt(II) cation is coordinated by two terminal N-bonded thiocyanate anions and two N-bonded 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)propane ligands, as well as two O atoms of methanol molecules in a slightly distorted octahedral coordination mode. Adjacent cations are connected into chains parallel to [101] by the bridging 1,3bis(pyridin-4-yl)propane ligands. These chains are connected through intermolecular O-HÁ Á ÁS hydrogen bonds between the methanol hydroxy group and the terminal S atom of the thiocyanate anion.

Comment
In the last few years we have demonstrated that thermal decomposition reactions are an elegante route for the selective synthesis of new ligand-deficient coordination polymers with cooperative magnetic properties (Boeckmann & Näther, 2010;Wöhlert et al., 2011). In this procedure ligand-rich precursor compounds based on paramagnetic transition metal thiocyanates and neutral monodentate or bidentate N-donor ligands are heated, leading to a stepwise loss of the neutral ligands, which yields ligand-deficient coordination compounds (Wriedt et al., 2009). For the preparation of new precursor compounds we have reacted cobalt(II) thiocyanate and 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)-propane in methanol. In this reaction lightgreen single crystals of the title compound, [Co(NCS) 2 (C 13 H 14 N 2 )(CH 3 OH) 2 ], were obtained, which were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.
In  Table 2). It should be noted that according to a search in the CCDC database (CONQUEST; version 13.2011; Allen, 2002) one structure based on cobalt(II) thiocyanate and 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)-propane has already been reported (Merz et al., 2004). In this structure the cobalt(II) cations are octahedrally coordinated by four 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)-propane ligands and two terminal N-bonded thiocyanato anions. The cobalt(II) cations are linked by the 1,3-bis(pyridin-4-yl)-propane ligands into chains oriented along the crystallographic a-axis that are further connected by the neutral co-ligands into layers.

Refinement
The aromatic H atoms were positioned with idealized geometry and were refined isotropically with U eq (H) = 1.2 U eq (C) and C-H distances of 0.93 Å using a riding model. The methyl H atoms of the methanol molecule were positioned with idealized geometry and were allowed to rotate but not to tip and were refined isotropically with U eq (H) = 1.5 U eq (C) and supplementary materials sup-2 C-H distances of 0.96 Å using a riding model. The O-H hydrogen atom was located in a difference map and was refined isotropically with varying coordinates. Fig. 1. : Crystal structure of the title compound with labelling and displacement ellipsoids drawn at the 50% probability level. [Symmetry codes: i) -x+1/2; -y+1/2; -z+1 and ii) -x; y; -z+1/2.]

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 > 2sigma(F 2 ) is used only for calculating R-factors(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.