organic compounds
Acta Crystallographica Section C
Crystal Structure
Communications
dimerizable cyclopentanones (Jones et al., 1981) and certain
coumarins (Gnanaguru et al., 1984) showed that the Cl–Me
exchange rule, based solely on the size of the substituent, need
not always be valid. Desiraju & Sarma (1986) observed that
this rule is a valid proposition only for large irregularly shaped
molecules, preferably with one Cl atom; however, it is not
necessarily true for more planar and regular-shaped molecules
where short Clꢀ ꢀ ꢀCl contacts, which may be incompatible with
the geometrical model, influence the molecular interactions.
The crystal structures analysed in the present study, namely
[3-methyl-4-(4-methylphenyl)-1-phenyl-6-trifluoromethyl-1H-
pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-5-yl](thiophen-2-yl)methanone, (I),
and [4-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-methyl-1-phenyl-6-trifluoromethyl-
1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-5-yl](thiophen-2-yl)methanone,
(II), are good examples of a case where the Cl–Me exchange
ISSN 0108-2701
Isomorphous methyl- and chloro-
substituted small heterocyclic
analogues obeying the chlorine–
methyl (Cl–Me) exchange rule1
V. Rajni Swamy,a P. Muller,b N. Srinivasan,a S. Perumalc
¨
and R. V. Krishnakumara*
aDepartment of Physics, Thiagarajar College, Madurai 625 009, India, bX-Ray
Diffraction Facility, MIT Department of Chemistry, 77 Massachusetts Avenue,
Building 2, Room 325, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA, and cSchool of
Chemistry, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai 625 021, India
Received 20 September 2012
Accepted 19 February 2013
Online 6 March 2013
The two new isomorphous structures [3-methyl-4-(4-methyl-
phenyl)-1-phenyl-6-trifluoromethyl-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyri-
din-5-yl](thiophen-2-yl)methanone, C26H18F3N3OS, (I), and
[4-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-methyl-1-phenyl-6-trifluoromethyl-1H-
pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-5-yl](thiophen-2-yl)methanone, C25H15-
ClF3N3OS, (II), are shown to obey the chlorine–methyl
exchange rule. Both structures show extensive disorder,
treatment of which greatly improves the quality of the
description of the structures. In addition, it is worth noting
that the presence of extensive disorder may make it difficult to
detect the isomorphism automatically during data-mining
procedures (such as searches of the Cambridge Structural
Database).
rule holds. In addition, the reported crystal structures are
potential candidates for remaining unnoticed for their
isomorphism in the Cambridge Structural Database (Allen,
2002) due to the extensive disorder observed in both of them.
Comment
The prediction of crystal structures is still a major challenge
for crystallographers owing to the complex nature of mol-
ecular interactions that range from the robust to the weak.
Hence, reliable crystallographic studies of the effect of
substituents on the packing of molecules in crystals are
essential for understanding the nature and strength of inter-
molecular interactions with the goal of classifying and ulti-
mately predicting them. Since the first use of the term ‘crystal
engineering’ by G. M. J. Schmidt (1971), the close-packing
model for organic molecules based on pure geometrical
considerations (Kitaigorodskii, 1973) that led to the chlorine–
methyl (Cl–Me) exchange rule may well be considered a
significant first step towards crystal-structure prediction.
Subsequently, crystal-engineering studies on selected photo-
Figure 1
The molecular structure of (I), showing the atom-numbering scheme and
displacement ellipsoids drawn at the 50% probability level. H atoms and
atoms of the minor disorder components have been omitted for clarity.
1 This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor M. A. Viswamitra on the
occasion of the 12th anniversary of his death.
412 # 2013 International Union of Crystallography
doi:10.1107/S0108270113004812
Acta Cryst. (2013). C69, 412–415