Intramolecular hydrogen bonds and tautomerism [phenol-imine (O-H·N) and keto-amine (O·H-N) forms] in 2-hydroxyaldimine Schiff bases have been investigated using spectroscopic and crystallographic techniques in solution and in the solid state. A good review of the hydrogen bonds has been published by Steiner. 1 In the solid state, it is generally specified by X-ray analysis that the keto-amine form is observed in naphthaldimines, while the phenol-imine form is found in salicylaldimines, 2 although, it is claimed that both keto-amine and phenol-imine forms are present in the crystalline state, based on NMR studies. 3 It was also claimed that the hydrogen bond type depends neither on the stereochemistry of the molecule nor on the type of the substituent bonded to the imino N atom, but on the type of aldehyde used, 2 with only an intramolecular O-H·N (phenol-imine form) type of hydrogen bond being observed in salicylaldimines and an O·H-N (ketoamine form) type in naphthaldimines. 2 However, naphthaldimine can also exist in the phenol-imine form 4 as in the title compound. Thus, the crystallographic results clearly reflect the importance of the stereochemistry of the molecule.The title compound was prepared from the reaction of 2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde (0.87 g, 2.69 mmol) and hydrazine monohydrate (0.60 g, 2.69 mmol) in boiling ethanol (150 ml). The mixture was refluxed for 2 h, and then the solution was cooled and filtered. The product was crystallized from a CHCl3/hexane mixture (3:1), (yield 0.55 g, 63%, decompose point 583 K).The X-ray analysis results are given in Tables 1 -4. The H4 atom was positioned geometrically and refined by using a riding model; the remaining H atoms were located by a difference synthesis and refined isotropically.The molecular structure of the title compound is shown in Fig. 2. It contains short intramolecular O-H·N hydrogen bonds (Table 4), which means that the compound is in the phenolimine form,