The title compound, [CrCu(C5H11NO2)(C5H12NO2)(NCS)2(H2O)] or [Cr(μ-mdea)Cu(μ-Hmdea)(NCS)2H2O], (where mdeaH2 is N-methylethanolamine, C5H13NO2) is formed as a neutral heterometal Cu(II)/Cr(III) complex. The mol-ecular structure of the complex is based on a binuclear {CuCr(μ-O)2} core. The coordination environment of each metal atom involves the N,O,O atoms of the tridentate ligand, one bridging O atom of the ligand and the N atom of the thio-cyanato ligands. The Cu(II) ion adopts a distorted square-pyramidal coordination while the Cr(III) ion has a distorted octa-hedral coordination geometry completed by the aqua ligand. In the crystal, the binuclear complexes are linked via two pairs of O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form inversion dimers, which are arranged in columns parallel to the a axis. In the μ-mdea ligand two -CH2 groups and the methyl group were refined as disordered over two sets of sites with equal occupancies. The structure was refined as a two-component twin with a twin scale factor of 0.242 (1).
Keywords: N-methyldiethanolamine; crystal structure; heterometal CuII/CrIII complex.