Structures and stabilization due to stacking of ternary copper(II) complexes containing an aromatic amino acid (AA) and an aromatic diamine (DA), Cu(AA)(DA), have been investigated by potentiometric, spectroscopic, and X-ray diffraction methods. For the systems with AA ) para-X-substituted L-phenylalanine (L-XPhe; X ) H, NO 2 , OH, NH 2 ) and DA ) 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy) or 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), the difference absorption spectra in the region 320-400 nm exhibited a peak assignable to the charge transfer interaction between the aromatic rings of DA and L-XPhe, the intensity being in the order NH 2 > OH > H . NO 2 with respect to X. The stability constants of Cu(AA)(DA) determined for AA ) DL-XPhe (X ) F, Cl, Br) and L-XPhe (X ) NH 2 , NO 2 , I) at 25 °C and I ) 0.1 M (KNO 3 ) indicated that stabilization of Cu(L-XPhe)(DA) relative to Cu(L-Ala)(en) (Ala ) alanine; en 3), and [Cu(L-Phe)-(bpy)]ClO 4 ‚H 2 O (4), isolated as crystals, were determined by the X-ray diffraction method: 1, orthorhombic,All of the complexes have a similar distorted square-pyramidal structure around the central Cu(II) ion. While 1 and 2 have a structure involving aromatic ring stacking in the solid state, 4 has a structure without it and 3 has both types of structures in the unit cell.