A series of six new mononuclear zinc(II) complexes of the type [Zn(X)(dbdmp)]Y (1-6) (X = N-3(-)/NCO-/NCS-, Y = ClO4-/PF6-, and dbdmp = N,N-diethyl-N',N'-bis((3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)methyl)ethane-1,2-diamine), two binuclear cadmium(II) complexes [{Cd(dbdmp)}(2)(mu-N-3)(2)](Y)(2) (7-8) and three mononuclear cadmium(II) complexes [Cd(NCO)(dbdmp)]Y (Y= ClO4-/PF6-) (9-10) and [Cd(NCS)(2)(dbdmp)] (11) have been synthesized and characterized by physico-chemical methods. Crystal structures of the complexes [Zn(N-3)(dbdmp)]ClO4 (1), [{Cd(dbdmp)}(2)(mu-N-3)(2)](ClO4)(2) (7), [Cd(NCO)(dbdmp)]ClO4 (9) and [Cd(NCS)(2)(dbdmp)] (11) have been solved by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies and showed that [Zn(N-3)(dbdmp)]ClO4 (I) and [Cd(NCO)(dbdmp)]ClO4 (9) have distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometry, [Cd(NCS)(2)(dbdmp)] (11) and [(dbdmp)Cd(mu-N-3)](2)(ClO4)(2) (7) have distorted octahedral geometry. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.