N,N′-Bis(2-iodo­benzyl­idene)ethane-1,2-diamine

The mol­ecule of the title Schiff base compound, C(16)H(14)I(2)N(2), lies across a crystallographic inversion centre. An intra­molecular C—H⋯I hydrogen bond forms a five-membered ring, producing an S(5) ring motif. The C=N bond is coplanar with the benzene ring and adopts a trans configuration. Within the mol­ecule, the planar units are parallel, but extend in opposite directions from the dimethyl­ene bridge. An inter­esting feature of the crystal structure is the short I⋯N [3.2096 (15) Å] inter­action, which is significantly shorter than the sum of the van der Waals radii of these atoms. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules are linked into one-dimensional extended chains along the c axis and also into one-dimensional extended chains along the b axis through short inter­molecular I⋯N inter­actions, forming two-dimensional networks parallel to the bc plane.