A novel trinuclear Co(II) complex, fiCoL(PrOH)](2)Co(H2O)).-PrOH, has been synthesized with 6-ethoxy-6'-hydroxy-2,2'-[ethylenedioxybis(nitrilomethylidyne)]diphenol (H3L), and characterized by elemental analyses, FT-IR, UV-Vis, molar conductance and X-ray crystallographic analysis. Two n-propanol molecules and one water molecule coordinate to three Co(II) ions and four y-phenoxo oxygen atoms from two [CoL(CH3CH2CH2OH)] units also coordinating to Co(II) ion. All the penta-coordinated Co(II) ions of the Co(II) complex have a slightly distorted trigonal bipyramidal coordinated polyhedron. Meanwhile, the y-phenoxo bridges play important roles in assembling Co(II) ions and L3- units, which is different from the normal trinuclear Co(II) complexes with the Salamo-type ligands reported early. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.