A binuclear cobalt(II) complex of an NO3-donor Schiff base derived from 3-carboxyl­salicylaldehyde and 2-nitro­aniline

In the crystal structure of the centrosymmetric title complex, bis-{μ-3-[(2-nitro-phen-yl)imino-meth-yl]-2-oxidobenzoato}dicobalt(II), [Co(2)(C(14)H(8)N(2)O(5))(2)], in which the ligand is 3-[(2-nitro-phen-yl)imino-meth-yl]-2-oxidobenzoate, a Schiff base synthesized from 2-nitro-aniline with 3-carboxyl-salicyl-aldehyde, the two cobalt(II) ions in the mol-ecular unit are bridged by two phenolate O atoms of the ligands. Each metal centre has a distorted square-planar geometry. In the crystal structure, mol-ecules are linked by Co⋯O inter-actions involving the nitro O atoms, forming a two-dimensional network. There are also C-H⋯O and π-π stacking inter-actions [centroid-centroid distances of 3.5004 (2), 3.6671 (2) and 3.6677 (2) Å] between adjacent benzene rings of the two-dimensional networks, leading to the formation of a three-dimensional framework.