Crystal structure of aqua-1κO-{μ-2-[(2-hydroxy­ethyl)methylamino]ethanolato-2:1κ(4) O (1),N,O (2):O (1)}[μ-2,2′-(methylimino)diethanolato-1:2κ(4) O,N,O′:O]dithiocyanato-1κN,2κN-chromium(III)copper(II)

The title compound, [CrCu(C(5)H(11)NO(2))(C(5)H(12)NO(2))(NCS)(2)(H(2)O)] or [Cr(μ-mdea)Cu(μ-Hmdea)(NCS)(2)H(2)O], (where mdeaH(2) is N-methylethanolamine, C(5)H(13)NO(2)) is formed as a neutral heterometal Cu(II)/Cr(III) complex. The mol­ecular structure of the complex is based on a binuclear {CuCr(μ-O)(2)} core. The coordination environment of each metal atom involves the N,O,O atoms of the tridentate ligand, one bridging O atom of the ligand and the N atom of the thio­cyanato ligands. The Cu(II) ion adopts a distorted square-pyramidal coordination while the Cr(III) ion has a distorted octa­hedral coordination geometry completed by the aqua ligand. In the crystal, the binuclear complexes are linked via two pairs of O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form inversion dimers, which are arranged in columns parallel to the a axis. In the μ-mdea ligand two –CH(2) groups and the methyl group were refined as disordered over two sets of sites with equal occupancies. The structure was refined as a two-component twin with a twin scale factor of 0.242 (1).