Journal of Chemical Crystallography, Vol. 30, No. 9, 2000
N-Arylmaleimide derivatives
Christopher W. Miller,(1) Charles E. Hoyle,(1) Edward J. Valente,(2)* Jeffrey D. Zubkowski,(3)
and E. Sonny Jo¨nsson(4)
Received August 31, 2000
Nine phenyl substituted N-phenylmaleimide monomers for photopolymerization studies have
been characterized by x-ray crystallography. Structures for N-(20-t-butylphenyl)maleimide (1),
P21/n, a = 10.197(3) A, b = 11.904(4) A, c = 10.496(5) A, = 100.61(3) ; N-(20-trifluoro-
˚
˚
˚
˚
˚
˚
methylphenyl)maleimide (2), P21/c, a = 11.763(8) A, b = 10.699(9) A, c = 8.284(5) A,
=
90.02(5) ; N-(20,60-diisopropylphenyl)maleimide hemibenzene solvate (3), Pc, a =
16.747(6) A, b = 8.552(3) A, c = 12.899(4) A, = 105.08(3) ; N-(20,60-diisopropylphenyl)
˚
˚
˚
˚
˚
˚
maleimide (unsolvated) (4), C2/c, a = 28.146(10) A, b = 8.434(4) A, c = 12.881(4) A,
=
=
92.20(4) ; N-(20-bromo-30,50-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl) maleimide (5), P21/n, a
8.7115(16) A, b = 16.125(3) A, c = 9.6707(19) A, = 99.757(15) ; N-(20-phenylphenyl)male-
˚
˚
˚
imide (6), P21/n, a = 8.519(4) A, b = 13.742(5) A, c = 11.147(4) A, = 92.25(3) ; N-(40-
˚
˚
˚
˚
˚
˚
methoxyphenyl)maleimide (7), P21/n, a = 9.320(3) A, b = 6.621(2) A, c = 16.059(6) A,
=
99.58(3) ; N-(20-trifluoromethylphenyl)-2-methylmaleimide (8), Fdd2, a = 43.362(12)A,
˚
0
˚
˚
b = 8.202(2) A, c = 12.720(4) A; and N-(2 -trifluoromethylphenyl)-2-methanosuccinimide
˚
˚
˚
(9), Cc, a = 7.708(2) A, b = 22.191(9) A, c = 7.137(2) A, = 115.76(2) are described.
Molecules with bulky 20-substituents show larger rotations between the mean phenyl and
maleimide ring planes, and varying degrees of distortion to the imide group.
KEY WORDS: Maleimide; crystal structure; photopolymerization; monomer; conformation.
Introduction
based formulations, a number of N-(substituted)aryl
maleimides and close analogs have been pre-
Recently, it has been shown that N-aliphatic
pared. Of particular interest for their photochem-
ical properties were N-arylmaleimide structures in
which substituents forced the two ring systems
to be nearly perpendicular (ortho substituents) or
imposed no special inter-ring torsional restraints.
Structures and observed and calculated spectro-
scopic properties for N-phenylmaleimide and the
ortho fluoro-, chloro-, bromo-, and iodophenyl
derivatives have already been reported.2 These
structures spanned the inter-ring torsional space.
Structures with well-twisted conformations func-
tion as hydrogen abstracting free-radical photoini-
tiators upon direct excitation in the presence of
a hydrogen atom donor synergist. In the present
work, the structures of eight N-arylmaleimide
compounds are described, six of which bear
ortho-phenyl substituents large enough to produce
maleimides are useful copolymerizable free-radical
photoinitiators by direct or sensitized excitation.1
They are, however, difficult and expensive to pre-
pare compared to N-aromatic maleimides which
have the additional advantages, depending on sub-
stituents, of being less toxic and available in large
quantities from commercial suppliers. To explore
the free-radical photoinitiation properties in acrylic-
(1) Department of Polymer Science, University of Southern
Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39406-0076.
(2) Department of Chemistry, Mississippi College, Clinton,
Mississippi 39058-4036.
(3) Department of Chemistry, Jackson State University, Jackson,
Mississippi 39215.
(4) Becker-Acroma, S19502 Ma¨rsta, Sweden.
* Towhomcorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedate-mailvalente@
mc.edu
563
C
1074-1542/00/0900-0563$18.00/0 2000 Plenum Publishing Corporation