Copper(II) malate polymeric complex with 2,2'-bipy, {[Cu(malate)(2,2′-bipy)]•3H₂O}_∞, has been synthesized and characterized by means of elemental analysis, thermal analysis, IR and UV-vis spectroscopy. The single crystal X-ray diffraction study shows that the complex is monoclinic, with space group P2(1)/c, a＝0.70132(10) nm, b＝1.9730(3) nm, c＝1.18998(16) nm, β＝94.551(3)°, Z＝2 and R＝0.0483. Each Cu(II) atom is coordinated by two nitrogen atoms from 2,2'-bipy and three oxygen atoms from two different malate dianions with a distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometry. The malate dianion adopts an R conformation bridging two copper centers, giving rise to a 1-D polymeric chain along the crystallographic axis a, and two parallel 1-D chains are constituted to form a novel ladder-shaped double chain structure through (-( interactions between the pyridine rings and C_pyridine—H…O_hydroxyl weak interactions. On the other hand, the neighboring double chains are extended into a 3-D structure with channels via intramolecular O_hydroxyl-H…O_carboxyl hydrogen bonds in the direction of axis a.

Key words: copper(II) malate, polymeric complex, crystal structure