Bis[2-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-4-nitrophenolato]copper(II) dihydrate: crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis

The crystal and mol­ecular structures of the title Cu(II) complex, isolated as a dihydrate, [Cu(C(21)H(14)N(3)O(3))(2)]·2H(2)O, reveals a highly distorted coordination geometry inter­mediate between square-planar and tetra­hedral defined by an N(2)O(2) donor set derived from two mono-anionic bidentate ligands. Furthermore, each six-membered chelate ring adopts an envelope conformation with the Cu atom being the flap. In the crystal, imidazolyl-amine-N—H⋯O(water), water-O—H⋯O(coordinated, nitro and water), phenyl-C—H⋯O(nitro) and π(imidazol­yl)–π(nitro­benzene) [inter-centroid distances = 3.7452 (14) and 3.6647 (13) Å] contacts link the components into a supra­molecular layer lying parallel to (101). The connections between layers forming a three-dimensional architecture are of the types nitro­benzene-C—H⋯O(nitro) and phenyl-C—H⋯π(phen­yl). The distorted coordination geometry for the Cu(II) atom is highlighted in an analysis of the Hirshfeld surface calculated for the metal centre alone. The significance of the inter­molecular contacts is also revealed in a study of the calculated Hirshfeld surfaces; the dominant contacts in the crystal are H⋯H (41.0%), O⋯H/H⋯O (27.1%) and C⋯H/H⋯C (19.6%).