Five pure 4,4‘-disubstituted meso-hydrobenzoins and one
solid solution have been investigated
crystallographically. The aim was to establish whether a favorable
hydrogen-bonding network and aromatic
herringbone packing motif might make the lamellar structure shared by
meso-hydrobenzoin (mHB) and meso-hydroanisoin sufficiently robust to serve as a reliable template on
which to construct isomorphous surfaces
containing various functional groups. Complete structures of the
4,4‘-difluoro-, 4,4‘-dichloro-, and 4,4‘-dibromo-meso-hydrobenzoins and an average structure of the disordered
4,4‘-dimethyl derivative were determined by
X-ray diffration. Partial structures of twinned or disordered
crystals of the 4,4‘-diethyl derivative and of the
1:1 mixed crystal of the 4,4‘-dimethyl and 4,4‘-dibromo derivatives
were determined by morphological and
optical studies supplemented by diffraction. While the fluoro and
ethyl compounds preserve the complete
layer structure of mHB, and the bromo and chloro compounds preserve
most of its features, the methyl compound
packs in a completely different structure. Unlike either of its
pure components, the methyl/bromo solid solution
packs in the mHB layer structure. Hydrogen bonding and herringbone
packing do not overwhelmingly favor
a constant layer motif. Competing influences due to size, charge,
and O−H···X hydrogen bonding (X = Cl,
Br) of substituents are discussed. For crystal design purposes it
is important to identify unfavorable packing
motifs, such as the side-by-side arrangement of parallel C−Cl or
C−Br groups.