Crystal structure of bis-[1-(naphthalen-1-ylmeth-yl)pyridinium] bis-(2,2-di-cyano-ethene-1,1-di-thiol-ato-κ(2) S,S')nickelate(II).

A new ion-pair complex, (C16H14N)2[Ni(C4N2S2)2] or (1-NaMePy)2[Ni(imnt)2], where 1-NaMePy is 1-(4-naphthyl-methyl-ene)pyridinium and imnt is 2,2-di-cyano-ethene-1,1-di-thiol-ate, was obtained by the direct reaction of NiCl2, K2imnt and (1-NaMePy)(+)Br(-) in H2O. The asymmetric unit contains a [1-NaMePy](+) cation and one half of an Ni(imnt)2 (2-) anion. The Ni(II) ion lies on an inversion centre and adopts a square-planar configuration with Ni-S bond lengths of 2.200 (1) and 2.216 (1) Å. In the [1-NaMePy](+) cation, the naphthyl ringsystem and the pyridinium ring make a dihedral angle of 90.0 (2)°. In the crystal, C-H⋯N and C-H⋯Ni hydrogen bonds, as well as π-π inter-actions between the chelate ring and the pyridinium ring [centroid-centroid distance = 3.675 (2) Å] link the ions into a three-dimensional network.