organic compounds
con®guration around the amino nitrogen. The internal coor-
dinate ꢃN = (H32ÐN3ÐC4ÐC3)
The character of the substituent on the benzene rings may
be inferred by the relative change in the CÐCÐC bond angle
at the ipso position. A decrease in this angle to below 120ꢀ is
characteristic of an electron-releasing substituent (ca 2ꢀ in the
case of aniline), whereas in the case of an electron acceptor
bound to the ring, the angle is increased (ca 3ꢀ in the case of
¯uorobenzene; Domenicano, 1992). This effect is con®rmed in
the values of the C3ÐC4(ÐNH2)ÐC5 angles in both (I) and
(II) (ca 118ꢀ). It should be noted that the C20ÐC10ÐC60 angle
in (I) is enlarged, as expected, to 121.0 (2)ꢀ. The non-oxidized
N atom bound to the other ring leads, however, to a decrease
of the C2ÐC1ÐC6 bond angle to 117.7 (2)ꢀ. This in¯uence is
almost the same as in the case of the NH2 group. It seems to
af®rm that the character of the N atoms (non-oxidized and
oxidized) is different. In the case of (II), the C6ÐC1ÐC2
angle remains almost the same as the respective angle in (I),
whereas the C60ÐC10ÐC20 angle is only slightly smaller than
120ꢀ. The deformation is most probably much smaller due to
the twist of this phenyl ring with respect to the NNO plane,
which prevents conjugation.
In the trans-azoxybenzenes, the benzene ring bound to the
oxidized site of the azoxy bridge is almost always coplanar
with it, irrespective of the substituent present (Ejsmont et al.,
2000, and references therein). While the reason for this is not
clear, it may result from the interaction of the O atom of the
NNO group with the ring bound to the oxidized N atom. On
the other hand, the other phenyl ring shows a much larger
tendency to become twisted with respect to the NNO plane.
The geometry of the azoxy group in (I) and (II) is consistent
with such a picture. In both isomers, the NÐN, CarylÐNO and
NÐO bonds have typical lengths (Ejsmont et al., 2000),
although the latter are slightly shorter. The differences
between the CarylÐNO and CarylÐN bond lengths are
observed in both isomers, with the CarylÐN bond always
shorter. The most signi®cant difference between (I) and (II) is
the conformation of the rings with respect to the NNO plane.
In (II), the unsubstituted ring is signi®cantly twisted along the
CarylÐN bond [torsion angles 54.6 (3) and 134.9 (2)ꢀ measured
to both ortho-C atoms]. The twist of the benzene ring with
respect to the NNO plane is associated with an increase of the
(H32ÐN3ÐC4ÐC5) +
ꢂ(mod2ꢂ), which is a measure of the degree of nitrogen
pyramidalization, is 46ꢀ. This is less than the extreme (60ꢀ)
value for regular sp3 hybridization, but is much more than
zero, which would indicate planar (sp2) geometry. The corre-
sponding numbers for the ꢀ isomer, (I), are as follows: the sum
of the valence angles is ca 354ꢀ, the dꢀistance of N3 from the
Ê
plane is 0.14 A and the factor ꢃN is 26 . It is inferred that the
amino group situated on the unoxidized side of the azoxy
bridge is more planar than in (II), but the deviation from
regular sp3 hybridization is the same as in 2-methyl-5-nitro-
aniline (Ellena et al., 1999). The lengths of the CarylÐNH2
Ê
Ê
bonds [1.369 (2) A in (I) and 1.385 (3) A in (II)] con®rm that
the interaction with the azoxy bridge is stronger in (I). It
should be mentioned that a mesomeric interaction with the
nitro group in a conjugated position shortens this bond to
Ê
1.355 A (Tonogaki et al., 1993).
It can be expected that an interaction of the substituents
across the ring will induce a quinonoid deformation of an
aromatic hexagon. The effect is small, even in the case of
4-nitroaniline (Tonogaki et al., 1993). In the present 4-amino
azoxybenzenes, the average CÐC bond length in the rings is
Ê
Ê
1.379 A and the deviations do not exceed 0.01 A, with one
exception. In the substituted ring of (I), the bonds parallel to
Ê
the N±Caryl±N axis are shorter (average 1.370 A) than the
Ê
remaining ones (average 1.394 A). The effect is minute, but it
is limited to one ring only, hence we can conclude that the
amino group interacts with the azoxy substituent when the
substituted ring is bound to the non-oxidized N atom. The
conclusion seems to con®rm the results obtained from the
geometries of the amino groups. The interaction of the azoxy
group with aromatic rings is of inductive character on one side
and mesomeric on the other.
Ê
CarylÐN bond length [1.420 (3) A in (II) compared with
3
Ê
1.401 (2) A in (I)]. It also increases the sp character of the
non-oxidized N atom [ꢃN factor of 9.6ꢀ in (II) compared with a
ꢃN value of 0.4ꢀ in (I)]. This is con®rmed by the relative shift of
atom H6 in (II), which interacts with the lone pair on N2. This
leads to an increase of the C5ÐC6ÐH6 angle to 125 (1)ꢀ and
a decrease of the C1ÐC6ÐH6 angle to 116 (1)ꢀ. The
respective angles in (I) are 120 (1) and 118 (1)ꢀ. The twist does
not result from steric hindrance around the O atom. The
Ê
distances to H atoms in the ortho positions are 2.36 A in the
Ê
coplanar ring and 2.63 A in the twisted ring.
The geometry of the ꢀ isomer, (I), is different; the molecule
is essentially planar, so the torsion angles along the CarylÐN
bonds are only 4.8 (2) and 8.0 (2)ꢀ. The conjugation between
the aromatic sextet and the ꢂ-electron system of the azoxy
group bound to the non-oxidized N atom cannot be excluded,
especially if one takes into acccount the shortening of the
Figure 1
The molecular structures of (a) the ꢀ isomer (I) and (b) the ꢁ isomer (II).
Displacement ellipsoids are shown at the 50% probability level and H
atoms are drawn as small spheres of arbitrary radii.
ꢁ
Â
468 Andrzej Domanski et al.
Two isomers of C12H11N3O
Acta Cryst. (2001). C57, 467±470