1,1′‐Methylenedipyridinium tetrachloridocuprate(II) and bis[tetrachloridoaurate(III)] hybrid salts by X‐ray powder diffraction

In order to explore the potential propensity of the 1,1′‐methylenedipyridinium dication to form organic–inorganic hybrid ionic compounds by reaction with the appropriate halide metal salt, the organic–inorganic hybrid salts 1,1′‐methylenedipyridinium tetrachloridocuprate(II), (C₁₁H₁₂N₂)[CuCl₄], (I), and 1,1′‐methylenedipyridinium bis[tetrachloridoaurate(III)], (C₁₁H₁₂N₂)[AuCl₄]₂, (II), were obtained by treatment of 1,1′‐methylenedipyridinium dichloride with CuCl₂ and Na[AuCl₄], respectively. Both hybrid salts were isolated as pure compounds, fully characterized by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and their molecular structures confirmed by powder X‐ray diffraction studies. The crystal structures consist of discrete 1,1′‐methylenedipyridinium dications and [CuCl₄]²⁻ and [AuCl₄]⁻ anions for (I) and (II), respectively. As expected, the dications form a butterfly shape; the Cu^II centre of [CuCl₄]²⁻ has a distorted tetrahedral configuration and the Au^III centre of [AuCl₄]⁻ shows a square‐planar coordination. The ionic species of (I) and the dication of (II) each have twofold axial symmetry, while the two [AuCl₄]⁻ anions are located on a mirror‐plane site. Both crystal structures are stabilized by intermolecular C—H...Cl hydrogen bonds and also by Cl...π interactions. It is noteworthy that, while the average intermolecular centroid–centroid pyridinium ring distance in (I) is 3.643 (8) Å, giving strong evidence for noncovalent π–π ring interactions, for (II), the shortest centroid–centroid distance between pyridinium rings of 5.502 (9) Å is too long for any significant π–π ring interactions, which might be due to the bulk of the two [AuCl₄]⁻ anions.