Crystal structure of bis-(4-acetyl-anilinium) tetra-chlorido-cobaltate(II).

The structure of the title salt, (C8H10NO)2[CoCl4], is isotypic with the analogous cuprate(II) structure. The asymmetric unit contains one 4-acetyl-anilinium cation and one half of a tetra-chlorido-cobaltate(II) anion for which the Co(II) atom and two Cl(-) ligands lie on a mirror plane. The Co-Cl distances in the distorted tetra-hedral anion range from 2.2519 (6) to 2.2954 (9) Å and the Cl-Co-Cl angles range from 106.53 (2) to 110.81 (4)°. In the crystal, cations are self-assembled by inter-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-actions, leading to a C(8) chain motif with the chains running parallel to the b axis. π-π stacking inter-actions between benzene rings, with a centroid-to-centroid distance of 3.709 Å, are also observed along this direction. The CoCl4 (2-) anions are sandwiched between the cationic chains and inter-act with each other through inter-molecular N-H⋯Cl hydrogen-bonding inter-actions, forming a three-dimensional network structure.