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CrystEngComm
Table 4 Hydrogen bonding (salts of chiral guests)
Compound
(H2)(R-BA+)
(H2)(S-BA+)
(H2)(R-MBA+)
(H2)(S-MBA+)
…
N1G O3
2.890(3)
2.752(3)
2.785(3)
3.261(3)
2.821(2)
3.289(2)
2.730(2)
2.785(2)
2.878(3)
2.990(4)
2.738(4)
2.999(4)
2.831(3)
3.303(3)
2.724(3)
2.763(3)
…
N1G O24A
a
…
N1G O24A
…
N1G O24B
a
:symmetry generated atom
+
chosen. For (H2)(R-MBA+) the NH3 group acts a donor with
each N–H bond involved in hydrogen bonding to either the
carboxyl or hydroxyl functionality of neighbouring host
molecules. Bifurcated bonds are also formed between the
Interestingly, a grinding experiment whereby a few drops of
racemic sec-butylamine was added to H (ground for a few
minutes) resulted in the kinetically preferred (H2)(S-BA+). This
is in contrast to the thermodynamically stable product
(H2)(R-BA+) obtained upon slow stirring a 1 : 1 mixture of H
and racemic sec-butylamine, which is identical to that
obtained by slow evaporation of the solution that yielded
single crystals. The powder X-ray diffraction results are shown
in Fig. 12. An analogous experiment could not be carried out
with racemic 3-methyl-2-butylamine due to the similarity
between the calculated powder patterns23 of (H2)(R-MBA+)
and (H2)(S-MBA+).
COO2 of the host and the NH3 group of the amine. This can
be described by the graph set R35(10)R12(4). The hydrogen
bonding is shown in Fig. 9.
+
The hydrogen bonding in the (H2)(S-MBA+) compound is
analogous to that found in the R-MBA+ structure. The packing
diagrams for both structures have been overlaid to illustrate
their similarity (Fig. 10).
Resolution results
Thermal analysis and kinetics
The salient point of the resolution experiment results is that
the host, H, preferentially selects (R)-sec-butylamine (BA) or (S)-
3-methyl-2-butylamine (MBA) from their respective racemic
modifications. We therefore analysed the non-bonded inter-
actions that impinge on each guest in the four structures. In
order to be self consistent, the final refinements were carried
out treating the –CH3 and –NH3+ moieties as rigid groups with
normalised d(C–H) and d(N–H) distances set at 1.08 Å. We
employed the program Crystal Explorer, which calculates the
Hirshfeld surfaces of a molecule in a crystal structure and
depicts all the molecular interactions of the targeted molecule
with its neighbours in the form of fingerprint plots.22
The results of the TG and DSC analyses are summarised in
Tables 5 and 6. For the decomposition of (H2)(PPA+)?ACE the
mass loss observed is due to the release of the PPA guest
(calculated 13.1%). The acetone evaporated prior to analysis.
This is in accordance with the structural results where the
acetone occupies channels and is not involved in hydrogen
bonding. A single broad endotherm corresponds to guest loss
and concomitant host melt.
For (2H2)(2PPA+)?4.3H2O the loss of water is followed by the
release of PPA (total calculated 20.0%) and the host melt. This
is depicted by three endotherms in the DSC. The loss of DBA in
(H2)(DBA+) is shown by a single mass loss step in the TG.
A complex endotherm in the DSC curve is due to the release
of DBA and the host melt. For all three structures decomposi-
tion was observed after 600 K. The endotherm associated with
The results are shown in Fig. 11, which displays the
fingerprint plots for each guest. The top row displays the
maps of the complete set of interactions. In the second and
third rows we highlight the close contacts where the sum of
the internal and external distances are ¡2.8 Å. When
comparing the (H2)(R-BA+) and (H2)(S-BA+) structures we
note that the hydrogen bonds are very similar (Table 4): there
are two strong hydrogen bonds and one weaker one in both
structures. These are shown as spikes labelled 1 in Fig. 11a2
…
and b2. However, the H H contacts of the guests shown in
Fig. 11a3 and b3 and labelled 2, show significant differences.
2
+
…
Fig. 11a3, for (H )(R-BA ), shows more H H interactions
peaking at (de + di) = 1.11 + 0.90 = 2.01 Å, while Fig. 11b3
shows this interaction as 1.21 + 1.25 = 2.25 Å. This confirms a
closer fit of the carbon-bound hydrogens of the R-BA+ guest
with the surrounding host surface. This feature is even more
pronounced in the case of the (H2)(R-MBA+) and (H2)(S-MBA+)
structures. We again have similar O2 H–N hydrogen bonds
…
+
(Table 4), displayed as spikes labelled 1 in Fig. 11c2 and d2,
…
but the H H interactions are strongly different. In Fig. 11d3,
the peak labelled 2 occurs at (de + di) = 1.56 Å, much closer
than that in Fig. 11c3 at 1.95 Å.
Fig. 12 PXRD patterns of (a) (H2)(R-BA+) obtained from stirring, (b) calculated
(H2)(R-BA+), (c) calculated (H2)(S-BA+) and (d) (H2)(S-BA+) obtained from
grinding.
936 | CrystEngComm, 2013, 15, 931–939
This journal is ß The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013