Abstract

In the title compound, C10H6N4O4S2, (I), the mol-ecule has a centre of inversion. The structure is a positional isomer of 5,5′-dinitro-2, 2′-dithio-dipyridine [Brito, Mundaca, Cárdenas, López-Rodríguez & Vargas (2007). Acta Cryst. E63, o3351-o3352], (II). The 3-nitro-pyridine fragment of (I) shows excellent agreement with the bonding geometries of (II). The most obvious differences between them are in the S - S bond length [2.1167 (12) Å in (I) and 2.0719 (11) Å in (II)], and in the C - C ipso - Nring [119.8 (2)° in (I) and 123.9 (3)° in (II)] and S - C - C [122.62 (18)° in (I) and 116.0 (2)° in (II)] angles. The crystal structure of (I) has an intra-molecular C - H⋯O inter-action, with an H⋯O distance of 2.40 (3) Å, whereas this kind of inter-action is not evident in (II). The mol-ecules of (I) are linked into centrosymmetric R 4 4(30) motifs by a C - H⋯O inter-action. There are no aromatic π-π stacking and no C - H⋯π(arene) inter-actions. Compound (I) can be used as a nucleophilic tecton in self-assembly reactions with metal centres of varying lability. © 2008 International Union of Crystallography.