Structural Chemistry of the Platinum Group Metals: MC12(bpy) (M = Pd, Pt; bpy = 2,2'-Bipyridine)

A single crystal X-ray structure determination of (2,2'-bipyridine)dichloropalladium(II), isomorphous with the 'yellow' form of the platinum(II) analogue, has been carried out. Crystals are orthorhombic, Pbca, a l8.144(5), b 15.952(5), c 7.494(2) A, Z 8, 1113 diffractometer reflections being refined by full matrix least squares to a residual of 0.052. The planar molecules of PdCl2(bpy) are stacked into columns along the c direction, at a separation of c/2, neighbouring molecules in the stacks being related by glide planes with Pd...Pd separations of 4.587(2) A.