Mirror-plane disorder in a nickel chloride Schiff base complex: a suitable case study for crystallographic instruction

Abstract

The nickel chloride complex of the Schiff base N 2,N 2′-propanediylbis(2,3-butanedione-2-imine-3-oxime), namely, chlorido(3,9-dimethylundeca-3,8-diene-2,10-dione 10-oxime 2-oximato-κ4 N,N′,N′′,N′′′)nickel(II), [NiCl(C11H19N4O2)], at 100 K crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Cmce. The structure exhibits mirror disorder of the main molecule that is not present in the bromide analogue. The relatively small number of unique reflections in the data set and the disorder imposed by the crystallographic mirror plane present a challenging educational case study.