Crystal structure of bis-(μ-3-nitro-benzoato)-κ(3)O,O':O;κ(3)O:O,O'-bis-[bis-(3-cyano-pyridine-κN(1))(3-nitro-benzoato-κ(2)O,O')cadmium].

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Cd2(C7H4NO4)4(C6H4N2)4], contains one Cd(II) atom, two 3-nitro-benzoate (NB) anions and two 3-cyano-pyridine (CPy) ligands. The two CPy ligands act as monodentate N(pyridine)-bonding ligands, while the two NB anions act as bidentate ligands through the carboxyl-ate O atoms. The centrosymmetric dinuclear complex is generated by application of inversion symmetry, whereby the Cd(II) atoms are bridged by the carboxyl-ate O atoms of two symmetry-related NB anions, thus completing the distorted N2O5 penta-gonal-bipyramidal coordination sphere of each Cd(II) atom. The benzene and pyridine rings are oriented at dihedral angles of 10.02 (7) and 5.76 (9)°, respectively. In the crystal, C-H⋯N hydrogen bonds link the mol-ecules, enclosing R2(2)(26) ring motifs, in which they are further linked via C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, resulting in a three-dimensional network. In addition, π-π stacking inter-actions between parallel benzene rings and between parallel pyridine rings of adjacent mol-ecules [shortest centroid-to-centroid distances = 3.885 (1) and 3.712 (1) Å, respectively], as well as a weak C-H⋯π inter-action, may further stabilize the crystal structure.