An X-ray powder investigation of catena-poly[copper(II)-di-mu-chloro-kappa41:2Cl-mu-1,5-dimethyl-1H-tetrazole-kappa2N3:N4].

The crystal structure of the polymeric title complex, [CuCl2(C3H6N4)]n, has been solved from laboratory X-ray powder diffraction data collected at room temperature. The structural model obtained was refined with the Rietveld method using geometric soft restraints. There are two Cu atoms, two Cl atoms and one 1,5-dimethyltetrazole ligand in the asymmetric unit. Both Cu atoms lie on inversion centres and adopt essentially elongated octahedral coordination. Within the octahedra, the elongated axial positions are occupied by Cl atoms, while two Cl and two N atoms (N3 and N4 of the tetrazole ring) are in equatorial sites. Each Cl atom forms an asymmetric bridge between neighbouring Cu atoms, which are also bridged via the N3-N4 bond of the tetrazole ring. These bridges result in the formation of polymeric chains, running along the a axis, with weak C-H...Cl hydrogen bonds crosslinking the chains.