The crystal structures and packing of organic compounds in the solid state are determined by the types of bonds between the molecules, the structure will depend upon the number, strength and orientation of inter-molecular interactions and bonds. Piyush Panini and Deepak Chopra of IISER Bhopal looked to investigate this further by synthesising, characterising and crystallising a series of 10 isomeric mono and di-trifluoromethylated benzanilides.
While the traditional C–H – – – O/N type hydrogen bonds are well studied it is more difficult to evaluate some of the weaker interactions, such as those involving halogens. In this Hot Article the authors look to link the cooperative effects of some of the weaker interactions to crystal structures and packing motifs, making some interesting discoveries.
All hot articles are free to access in CrystEngComm for 4 weeks, so you can download this article for free until next month by clicking the link below.
Role of intermolecular interactions involving organic fluorine in trifluoromethylated benzanilides
Piyush Panini and Deepak Chopra
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06254B
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In this HOT Article, the achiral mesoxalato ligand (H2mesox2-) is identified as a new enantiopurity enforcer in extended structures by yielding the homochiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) 2D-[Ln2(µ-H2mesox)3(H2O)6]. The chirality of the compounds can be observed in the features of the crystal structure and also in the dominating intensity of the hypersensitive transition within trivalent europium, which reacts strongly to the absence of a local inversion centre and proves the chiral environment of the rare-earth ions within the complexes.
