metal-organic papers m1220 Sevim Tu È rktekin et al.  [CoCl 2 (C 11 H 14 N 2 O) 2 ] DOI: 10.1107/S1600536804018835 Acta Cryst. (2004). E60, m1220±m1222 Acta Crystallographica Section E Structure Reports Online ISSN 1600-5368 Dichlorobis[1-(2-ethoxyethyl)-1H-benzimid- azole-jN 3 ]cobalt(II) Sevim Tu Èrktekin, a Mehmet Akkurt, a * Ersin Orhan, b F. Zehra Ku ÈcËu Èkbay, c Hasan Ku ÈcËu Èkbay d and Orhan Bu Èyu Èkgu Èngo Èr e a Department of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Erciyes University, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey, b Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Karaelmas University, 67100 Zonguldak, Turkey, c Department of Analytical Chemistry, Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, I Â no Ènu È University, 44280 Malatya, Turkey, d Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, I Â no Ènu È University, 44280 Malatya, Turkey, and e Department of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Ondokuz Mayõs University, 55139 Samsun, Turkey Correspondence e-mail: akkurt@erciyes.edu.tr Key indicators Single-crystal X-ray study T = 150 K Mean (C±C) = 0.004 A Ê R factor = 0.030 wR factor = 0.073 Data-to-parameter ratio = 20.6 For details of how these key indicators were automatically derived from the article, see http://journals.iucr.org/e. # 2004 International Union of Crystallography Printed in Great Britain ± all rights reserved The title compound, [CoCl 2 (C 11 H 14 N 2 O) 2 ], was synthesized from 1-(2-ethoxyethyl)benzimidazole and cobalt dichloride in ethanol. The Co II atom is coordinated in a distorted tetrahedral environment by two Cl atoms and two N atoms. The crystal structure is stabilized by intermolecular CÐ HCl and CÐHO interactions. Comment Benzimidazole and its derivatives have been found to have a broad range of pharmacological activity (Ku Èc Ëu È kbay et al. , 2001, 2004; Ku Èc Ëu È kbay, Durmaz, Orhan & Gu È nal, 2003; Ku Èc Ëu Èkbay, Durmaz, Okuyucu & Gu Ènal, 2003; Tavman, 2003). Transition metal complexes of benzimidazoles are increasingly used to model important bioinorganic systems (Khalil et al., 2001). Furthermore, benzimidazole complexes have been evaluated as antifungal (Ku Èc Ëu È kbay & Durmaz, 1997), anti- bacterial (C Ë etinkaya et al., 1996) and antitumour agents (Lukevics et al. , 2001). We have also synthesized a number of rhodium and ruthenium complexes of benzimidazole deriva- tives and determined their antimicrobial properties (Ku Èc Ëu È kbay & Durmaz, 1997; Durmaz et al., 1997; C Ë etinkaya et al., 1996), while results for related compounds containing the benzimidazole moiety have been reported in our earlier papers (O È ztu Èrk et al., 2004; Akkurt, O È ztu Èrk, Ku Èc Ëu È kbay et al. , 2004a,b; Akkurt, O È ztu Èrk, S Ë ireci et al., 2004; Tu È rktekin et al., 2004). The aim of the present study was to elucidate the crystal structure of the title compound, (I). The Co atom in (I) is coordinated tetrahedrally by two Cl atoms and two N atoms (Fig. 1 and Table 1). The Cl 2 N 2 donor set de®nes a distorted tetrahedron, with angles ranging from 104.61 (5) to 119.84 (2)  . The average CoÐN bond length of 2.008 (2) A Ê may be compared with the reported average values of 2.1653 (16) for trans -tetraaquabis( p -nitrobenzoxasulfamato)cobalt(II) (Kazak et al., 2004), 2.0944 (14) in diaquabis(1H-imidazole- N 3 )bis(4-nitrobenzoato-O)cobalt(II) (Xu & Xu, 2004) and Received 29 July 2004 Accepted 2 August 2004 Online 7 August 2004