Hexanuclear copper(II) complex of 2-hy-droxy-N,N'-bis-[1-(2-hy-droxy-phen-yl)ethyl-idene]propane-1,3-di-amine incorporating an open-cubane core.

The title mol-ecular structure, namely, di-aqua-tris-(μ(3)-1,3-bis-{[1-(2-oxidophen-yl)ethyl-idene]amino}-propan-2-olato)-μ(3)-hydroxido-dinitrato-hexa-copper(II) ethanol tris-olvate, [Cu(6)(C(19)H(19)N(2)O(3))(3)(NO(3))(2)(OH)(H(2)O)(2)]·3C(2)H(5)OH, corres-ponds to a non-symmetric hexa-nuclear copper complex. The complex exhibits one core in which three Cu(II) metal centres are mutually inter-connected, two by two, via three phenolato oxygen anions acting in a μ(2)-mode. These three copper cations are inter-connected in a μ(3)-mode by one hydroxyl group. An open-cube structure is generated in which each of the Cu(II) cations of the three CuO(4)N units is connected by two μ(2)-O anions from phenolate groups and one μ(3)-O atom from a hy-droxy anion. Each of the three penta-coordinated Cu(II) cations situated in the open-cube unit has a distorted NO(4) square-pyramidal environment. Each of these three Cu(II) centres is inter-connected with another Cu(II) cation via one enolate O atom in μ(2)-mode, yielding one CuNO(4) unit and two CuNO(3) units. The penta-coordinated Cu(II) atom has a distorted square-pyramidal environment while the two tetra-coordinated copper(II) cations are situated in a square-planar environment. A series of intra-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds are observed. In the crystal, the units are connected two by two by inter-molecular C-H⋯O and O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, thus forming sheets parallel to the ac plane.