Keywords: Nickel(II) complexes / Square-planar complexes / Apical C-H···Ni interactions / X-ray structures / Theoretical calculations and sp 2 N-donor 2-phenylimidazole (phim) as the ancillary ligand have been synthesised and characterised by analytical, spectroscopic, magnetic and electrochemical methods. The solid-state structures of both complexes have been determined by X-ray crystallography. The asymmetric unit of 1 contains a single complex molecule while that of 2 contains four complex molecules with different conformations. The molecular structures of both complexes reveal that one of the two ortho C-H groups of the pendant phenyl ring of the phim ligand is very close to the metal centre at the apical site indicating the presence of an intramolecular C-H···Ni interaction. In the structures of 1 and 2, the shape of the C-H···Ni interaction is determined by the twisting of the phim ligand and the extent of orthogo-
IntroductionThe long standing interest in the interaction of transition metal ions with proximate C-H fragments is primarily due to the C-H activation processes involved in many catalytic reactions. Such interactions have been scrutinised intensively for a better understanding of their structural and bonding features. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The C-H···M interaction in coordinatively unsaturated and electron-deficient (16-electron) species is called an agostic interaction or agostic bond where the filled C-H σ orbital interacts with an empty metal orbital. In these agostic interactions, generally the C-H fragment is side-on to the metal ion. This T-shape of the agostic C-H···M interaction facilitates the involvement of the filled metal dπ orbital and the empty C-H σ* orbital in back bonding. However, the nature of the apical C-H···M interactions in square-planar 16-electron complexes of d 8 metal ions is not very clear. [9][10][11][12] In such species, these interactions can be agostic bond (three-centre two-electron) as well as non-classical hydrogen bond (three-centre four-elec- [a]