Bis(2-methyl-benzoato-κO,O')(1,10'-phenanthroline-κN,N')copper(II).

In the title compound, [Cu(C(8)H(7)O(2))(2)(C(12)H(8)N(2))], the Cu(II) atom assumes a distorted octa-hedral coordination geometry, chelated by two N atoms from the 1,10'-phenanthroline ligand and four O atoms from two 2-methyl-benzoate anions. A significant Jahn-Teller distortion is observed with two axial Cu-O distances significantly longer than those in the equatorial CuO(2)N(2) plane. In the crystal, π-π stacking inter-actions, with centroid-centroid distances of 3.547 (3) or 3.728 (3) Å between the phenanthroline rings, form layers parallel to (011).