A new nanostructured cadmium complex containing a tridentate Schiff base ligand was sonochemically synthesized and characterized by XRPD, FT/IR, NMR, and single crystal X-ray crystallography. Structural data showed that cadmium(II) ion is surrounded by three nitrogen atoms of Schiff base ligand and two iodide anions. The crystal packing was contained the intermolecular interactions such as CH⋯O, CH⋯I and π⋯π interactions organizing the self-assembly process. Hirshfeld surfaces and corresponding fingerprint plots have been used for investigation of the nature and proportion of interactions in the crystal packing. FT/IR, NMR and XRD data were in agreement with the X-ray structure and confirm the phase purity of the prepared sample. The molecular structure of the complex was optimized by density functional theory (DFT) calculation at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ level of theory and the results were compared with experimental ones. For more concise study of structure and spectral aspects of the complex, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) have been also performed. Thermal stability of the cadmium iodide complex was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Finally, cadmium oxide nanoparticles was prepared by direct calcination of CdLI2 complex as a new precursor.
