metal-organic compounds
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The title compound, [Cu(C4H10NO)I(C4H11NO)], was obtained unintentionally as the product of an attempted synthesis of a Cu/Zn mixed-metal complex using zerovalent copper, zinc(II) oxide and ammonium iodide in pure 2-(dimethylamino)ethanol, in air. The molecular complex has no crystallographically imposed symmetry. The coordination geometry around the metal atom is distorted square-pyramidal. The equatorial coordination around copper involves donor atoms of the bidentate chelating 2-(dimethylamino)ethanol ligand and the 2-(dimethylamino)ethanolate group, which are mutually trans to each other, with four approximately equal short Cu—O/N bond distances. The axial Cu—I bond is substantially elongated. Intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions involving the –OH group of the neutral 2-(dimethylamino)ethanol ligand to the O atom of the monodeprotonated 2-(dimethylamino)ethanolate group of the molecule related by the n-glide plane, as indicated by the OO distance of 2.482 (12) Å, form chains of molecules propagating along [101].