catena-Poly[[[bis­(thio­cyanato-κN)zinc(II)]-μ-1,2-bis­{[2-(2-pyrid­yl)-1H-imidazol-1-yl]meth­yl}benzene] 0.28-hydrate]

The title one-dimensional coordination polymer, {[Zn(NCS)(2)(C(24)H(20)N(6))(2)]·0.28H(2)O}(n), was obtained by the reaction of Zn(OAc)(2)·2H(2)O, KSCN and 1,2-bis-{[2-(2-pyrid-yl)-1H-imid-azol-1-yl]meth-yl}benzene (hereafter L). The Zn(II) ion shows a distorted octa-hedral coordination geometry and is coordin-ated by two N atoms from two SCN(-) anions and four N atoms from two organic ligands. The L ligands act as bridging bis-chelating ligands with cis coordination modes at the Zn(II) ion. One-dimensional coordination polymers are arranged into layers by π-π stacking inter-actions between the imidazole rings of adjacent chains, with an inter-planar distance of 3.46 (1) Å and centroid-centroid distances of 3.8775 (16) Å. One of the thio-cyanate ligands is disordered over two positions with an occupancy factor of 0.564 (3) for the major component. The partially occupied water mol-ecule forms an O-H⋯S hydrogen bond with the disordered thio-cyanate group.