Zn(II) and Cu(II) complexes generated from 5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione.

A new 1,3,4-oxadiazole-containing bispyridyl ligand, namely 5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione (L), has been used to create the novel complexes tetranitratobis{μ-5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione}zinc(II), [Zn2(NO3)4(C14H12N4OS)2], (I), and catena-poly[[[dinitratocopper(II)]-bis{μ-5-(pyridin-4-yl)-3-[2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethyl]-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2(3H)-thione}] nitrate acetonitrile sesquisolvate dichloromethane sesquisolvate], {[Cu(NO3)(C14H12N4OS)2]NO3·1.5CH3CN·1.5CH2Cl2}n, (II). Compound (I) presents a distorted rectangular centrosymmetric Zn2L2 ring (dimensions 9.56 × 7.06 Å), where each Zn(II) centre lies in a {ZnN2O4} coordination environment. These binuclear zinc metallocycles are linked into a two-dimensional network through nonclassical C-H···O hydrogen bonds. The resulting sheets lie parallel to the ac plane. Compound (II), which crystallizes as a nonmerohedral twin, is a coordination polymer with double chains of Cu(II) centres linked by bridging L ligands, propagating parallel to the crystallographic a axis. The Cu(II) centres adopt a distorted square-pyramidal CuN4O coordination environment with apical O atoms. The chains in (II) are interlinked via two kinds of π-π stacking interactions along [0-11]. In addition, the structure of (II) contains channels parallel to the crystallographic a direction. The guest components in these channels consist of dichloromethane and acetonitrile solvent molecules and uncoordinated nitrate anions.