Three new members of the copper/carboxylato/heterocyclic diimine family, namely [Cu(GLYO)(2,2Ј-bipy)] 2 · nH 2 O (n ϭ 4 (1) or 6 (2), H 2 GLYO ϭ glycolic acid, 2,2Ј-bipy ϭ 2,2Ј-bipyridine) and {[Cu(AcO) 2 (4,4Ј-bipy)] · 3H 2 O} n (3) (AcO ϭ acetato, 4,4Јbipy ϭ 4,4-bipyridine), have been synthesized and characterized by IR and electronic absorption spectroscopy, and the crystal structures have been determined by single crystal X-ray analysis. 1 and 2 are composed of discrete dinuclear units in which each Cu II atom is coordinated in a square pyramidal arrangement to the two nitrogen atoms of a bipyridine ligand, to bridging non-carboxy oxygen atoms belonging to two glycolato ligands, and to one of the carboxy oxygen atoms of one of these glycolato ligands. The Cu··Cu distance is 3.0666(5) Å . Compound 3 consists of linear chains of dinuclear units in which each Cu II is coordinated to one non-bridging monodentate acetato ligand, to two acetato ligands