Crystal structure of an unknown solvate of {2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilomethanylylidene)]diphenolato-κ4O,N,N′,O′}(N-ferrocenylisonicotinamide-κN1)cobalt(II): a CoII–salen complex that forms hydrogen-bonded dimers

The title compound, [CoFe(C5H5)(C16H14N2O2)(C11H9N2O)], was prepared as an air-stable red–brown solid by mixing equimolar amounts of {2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilomethanylylidene)]diphenolato}cobalt(II) and N-ferrocenylisonicotinamide in dry dichloromethane under nitrogen and was characterized by ESI–MS, IR, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structure at 100 K has triclinic (P-1) symmetry and indicates that the complex crystallizes as a mixture of λ and δ conformers. It exhibits the expected square pyramidal geometry about Co, and forms hydrogen-bonded dimers through amide N—H groups and phenolate O atoms on an adjacent molecule. The involvement of only half of the salen ring structure in hydrogen-bonding interactions results in slight folding of the salen ring away from the pyridine coordination site in the δ conformer with an inter-salicylidene fold angle of 9.9 (7)°. In contrast, the λ conformer is nearly planar. The dimers pack into an open structure containing channels filled with highly disordered solvent molecules. These solvent molecules' contributions to the intensity data were removed with the SQUEEZE procedure [Spek (2015). Acta Cryst. C71, 9–18] available in PLATON