N,N'-Bis(3-chloro-2-fluoro-benzyl-idene)ethane-1,2-diamine

The mol-ecule of the title centrosymmetric Schiff base compound, C(16)H(12)Cl(2)F(2)N(2), adopts an E configuration with respect to the azomethine C=N bond. The imino groups are coplanar with the aromatic rings. Within the mol-ecule, the planar units are parallel, but extend in opposite directions from the dimethyl-ene bridge. An inter-esting feature of the crystal structure is the short inter-molecular Cl⋯F [3.1747 (5) Å] inter-actions, which are shorter than the sum of the van der Waals radii of these atoms. These inter-actions link neighbouring mol-ecules along the b axis. The crystal structure is further stabilized by π-π inter-actions, with a centroid-centroid distance of 3.5244 (4) Å.