Di-mu-chlorido-bis(chlorido{N '-[phenyl(pyridin-2-yl-kappa N)methylidene]pyridine-2-carbohydrazide-kappa N-2 ',O}cadmium)

The title compound, [Cd2Cl4(C18H14N4O)(2)], was obtained from the reaction of Cd(NO3)(2)center dot 4H(2)O with 2-phenylpyridine-keton picolinoyl hydrazone and sodium chloride. Each Cd2+ cation is coordinated by two N atoms and one O atom of the tridentate ligand and three chloride anions, forming a distorted CdNOCl3 octahedron. Each pair of adjacent metal cations is linked by two bridging chloride ligands, resulting in a dinuclear complex unit. The molecular conformation is stabilized by intramolecular N-H center dot center dot center dot N and C-H center dot center dot center dot O hydrogen bonds. In the crystal, molecules are linked by nonclassical C-H center dot center dot center dot O and C-H center dot center dot center dot Cl hydrogen bonds into a three-dimensional network. In addition, pi-pi stacking interactions [centroid-centroid distances = 3.777 (2) and 3.631 (2) angstrom] contribute to the stabilization of the crystal packing