Crystal structure of bis(bis{(E)-[(6-{(E)-[(4-fluorobenzyl)imino]methyl}pyridin-2-yl)methylidene](4-fluorophenyl)amine}nickel(II)) tetra-bromide nona-hydrate.

In the title complex, [Ni(C21H17F2N3)2]2Br4·9H2O, there are two independent metal complexes per asymmetric unit and two ligands per metal complex. The structural features (bond lengths and angles) of the two complexes are almost identical. In each complex, the nickel(II) ion is coordinated in an octa-hedral environment by six N atoms from two chelating (9E)-N-({6-[(E)-(4-fluoro-benzyl-imino)-meth-yl]pyridin-2-yl}methyl-ene)(4-fluoro-phen-yl)methanammine ligands. The Ni-N bond lengths range from 1.973 (2) to 2.169 (2) Å, while the chelate N-Ni-N angles range from 77.01 (10) to 105.89 (9)°. Additionally, there are four bromide anions and nine solvent water mol-ecules within the asymmetric unit. The water mol-ecules form a hydrogen-bonded network, displaying C-H⋯O, C-H⋯Br, O-H⋯Br, O-H⋯O and O-H⋯F inter-actions into layers parallel to (111). In each unit, the fluoro-phenyl rings of one ligand are stacked with the central ring of the other ligand via π-π inter-actions, with the closest centroid-to-plane distances being 3.445 (5), 3.636 (5), 3.397 (5) and 3.396 (5) Å.