crystal structure of {6,6′-dibenzoyl-4,4′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-[(ethane-1,2-diyl)dinitrilobis(phenylmethanylylidene)]diphenolato-κ4o1,n,n′,o1′}nickel(ii)

The mononuclear title complex, [Ni(C50H46N2O4)], crystallizes in the triclinic space group P-1, with two molecules in the asymmetric unit (Z′ = 2). Each NiII atom has a slightly distorted square-planar geometry [ω = 3.91 (5)° and 2.04 (7)°] defined by the two phenolate O and two imine N atoms of the tetradentate Schiff base ligand. The dihedral angles between the central phenolate ring and peripheral phenyl rings are 60.5 (2)/70.0 (2) and 86.4 (2)/56.1 (2)° in molecule A, and 89.43 (19)/18.0 (2) and 63.87 (19)/68.2 (2)° in molecule B. The two central phenolate rings are twisted by angles of 19.37 (19) and 19.36 (18)° in the two molecules. The packing is stabilized through intra- and intermolecular C—H...O and C—H...π interactions, forming chains parallel to the b axis. The tert-butyl groups in one of the two molecules are positionally disordered with a refined occupancy ratio of 0.707 (13):0.293 (13).