In the title hydrated mol-ecular salt, [Fe(C12H8N2)3](C9H5N4O)2·0.5H2O, the water mol-ecule site is half-occupied. The Fe-N bond lengths within the octa-hedral tris-chelate [Fe(phen)3](2+) ion (phen is 1,10-phenantroline) are indicative of a low-spin d(6) electronic configuration for the metal ion. The C-N, C-C and C-O bond lengths in the polynitrile anions indicate extensive electronic delocalization. In the crystal, the components are linked through O-H⋯N hydrogen bonds, forming [100] chains, as well as through Coulombic inter-actions.

Two new compounds of general formula [M(N₃)₂(dmbpy)] in which dmbpy = 5,5′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine, and M = Mn(II) or Co(II), have been solvothermally synthesized and characterized structurally and magnetically. The structures consist of zig-zag polymeric chains with alternating bis-µ(azide-N1)₂M and bis-µ(azide-N1,N3)₂M units in which the cis-octahedrally based coordination geometry is completed by the N,N’-chelating ligand dmbpy. The molecular structures are basically the same for each metal. The Mn(II) compound has a slightly different packing mode compared to the Co(II) compound, resulting from their different space groups. Interestingly, relatively weak interchain interactions are present in both compounds and this originates from π–π stacking between the dmbpy rings. The magnetic properties of both compounds have been investigated down to 2 K. The measurements indicate that the manganese compound shows spin-canted antiferromagnetic ordering with a Néel temperature of T_N = 3.4 K and further, a field-induced magnetic transition of metamagnetism at temperatures below the T_N. This finding affords the first example of an 1D Mn(II) compound with alternating double end-on (EO) and double end-to-end (EE) azido-bridged ligands, showing the coexistence of spin canting and metamagnetism. The cobalt compound shows a weak ferromagnetism resulting from a spin-canted antiferromagnetism and long-range magnetic ordering with a critical temperature, T_C = 16.2 K.