Roles of Hydrogen, Halogen Bonding and Aromatic Stacking in a Series of Isophthalamides

Simple Summary Crystal and modelled structures of five N-1,N-3-di(5-X-pyridin-2-yl)isophthalamides (X = H, F to I) as (X-DIP) are reported. The roles that their molecular conformations and interactions play in solid-state aggregation are assessed. Cl-DIP (Z' = 3) exhibits both syn/anti and anti/anti molecular conformations in 2:1 ratio. The hydrogen bonding hierarchy and sheet formation in Br-DIP induces the formation of a bromine-rich environment manifesting as a 'wall of bromine atoms' at the sheet interfaces. The hydrate in I-DIP center dot 1/2(H2O) forms a rare synthon. The synthesis and spectroscopic characterisation of six bis(5-X-pyridine-2-yl)isophthalamides (X = H, F, Br, Cl, I, NO2) are reported, together with five crystal structure analyses (for X = H, F to I). The isophthalamides span a range of conformations as syn/anti (H-DIP; I-DIP), anti/anti- (F-DIP; Br-DIP) and with both present in ratio 2:1 in Cl-DIP. The essentially isostructural F-DIP and Br-DIP molecules (using strong amide horizontal ellipsis amide interactions) aggregate into 2D molecular sheets that align with either F/H or Br atoms at the sheet surfaces (interfaces), respectively. Sheets are linked by weak C-HMIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSISF contacts in F-DIP and by BrMIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSISBr halogen bonding interactions as a 'wall of bromines' at the Br atom rich interfaces in Br-DIP. Cl-DIP is an unusual crystal structure incorporating both syn/anti and anti/anti molecular conformations in the asymmetric unit (Z' = 3). The I-DIP center dot 1/2(H2O) hemihydrate structure has a water molecule residing on a twofold axis between two I-DIPs and has hydrogen and NMIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSISI (N-c = 0.88) halogen bonding. The hydrate is central to an unusual synthon and involved in six hydrogen bonding interactions/contacts. Contact enrichment analysis on the Hirshfeld surface demonstrates that F-DIP, Cl-DIP and Br-DIP have especially over-represented halogen center dot center dot center dot halogen interactions. With the F-DIP, Cl-DIP and Br-DIP molecules having an elongated skeleton, the formation of layers of halogen atoms in planes perpendicular to the long unit cell axis occurs in the crystal packings. All six DIPs were analysed by ab initio calculations and conformational analysis; comparisons are made between their minimized structures and the five crystal structures. In addition, physicochemical properties are compared and assessed.