Crystal structure of tetra-aqua-(5,5'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridyl-κ(2) N,N')iron(II) sulfate

In the title compound, [Fe(C12H12N2)(H2O)4]SO4, the central Fe(II) ion is coordinated by two N atoms from the 5,5'-dimethyl-2,2'-bi-pyridine ligand and four water O atoms in a distorted octa-hedral geometry. The Fe-O coordination bond lengths vary from 2.080 (3) to 2.110 (3) Å, while the two Fe-N coordination bonds have practically identical lengths [2.175 (3) and 2.177 (3) Å]. The chelating N-Fe-N angle of 75.6 (1)° shows the largest deviation from an ideal octa-hedral geometry; the other coordination angles deviate from ideal values by 0.1 (1) to 9.1 (1)°. O-H⋯O hydrogen bonding between the four aqua ligands of the cationic complex and four O-atom acceptors of the anion leads to the formation of layers parallel to the ab plane. Neighbouring layers further inter-act by means of C-H⋯O and π-π inter-actions involving the laterally positioned bi-pyridine rings. The perpen-dicular distance between π-π inter-acting rings is 3.365 (2) Å, with a centroid-centroid distance of 3.702 (3) Å.