Linking cyano-bridged ladders by azide to form a layered metamagnetElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: crystal structure plots, more magnetic data and plots for 1 and 2. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b4/b405167j/

Cyano-bridged corrugated ladder-like chains are connected by mu(1,1)-N(3) (end-on, EO) bridges to form a layered coordination polymer, [Mn(N(3))(CH(3)OH)[Cr(phen)(CN)(4)].CH(3)OH (2), which is the first mixed cyano-azide bridged compound, and shows metamagnetism below 21.8 K, a temperature much higher than that (3.4 K) of the crossed double chain [Cr(phen)(CN)(4)](2) [Mn(H(2)O)(2)].4H(2)O (1) based on the same building block [Cr(phen)(CN)(4)](-).