Crystal structure of bis­­(μ-3-nitro­benzoato)-κ3O,O′:O;κ3O:O,O′-bis­­[bis­­(3-cyano­pyridine-κN1)(3-nitro­benzoato-κ2O,O′)cadmium]

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Cd2(C7H4NO4)4(C6H4N2)4], contains one CdII atom, two 3-nitro­benzoate (NB) anions and two 3-cyano­pyridine (CPy) ligands. The two CPy ligands act as monodentate N(pyridine)-bonding ligands, while the two NB anions act as bidentate ligands through the carboxyl­ate O atoms. The centrosymmetric dinuclear complex is generated by application of inversion symmetry, whereby the CdII atoms are bridged by the carboxyl­ate O atoms of two symmetry-related NB anions, thus completing the distorted N2O5 penta­gonal–bipyramidal coordination sphere of each CdII atom. The benzene and pyridine rings are oriented at dihedral angles of 10.02 (7) and 5.76 (9)°, respectively. In the crystal, C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules, enclosing R22(26) ring motifs, in which they are further linked via C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, resulting in a three-dimensional network. In addition, π–π stacking inter­actions between parallel benzene rings and between parallel pyridine rings of adjacent mol­ecules [shortest centroid-to-centroid distances = 3.885 (1) and 3.712 (1) Å, respectively], as well as a weak C—H⋯π inter­action, may further stabilize the crystal structure.