A variable-temperature X-ray diffraction and theoretical study of conformational polymorphism in a complex organic molecule (DTC).

Two conformational crystal polymorphs of 3-diethylamino-4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,1-dioxo-4H-1λ6,2-thiazete-4-carbonitrile (DTC) have been analyzed in the 100 K-room temperature range by single crystal X-ray diffraction and high quality DFT calculations. DTC has strongly polar as well as aliphatic substituents but no hydrogen bonding groups, and thus qualifies as a test molecule for the relative importance of electrostatic vs. dispersion-repulsion terms. The two polymorphs have the same P21/n space group and differ by a flipping of the -OCH3 group, the two conformations being almost equi-energetic and separated by a low barrier. The system is monotropic in the observed temperature range with nearly identical thermal expansion coefficients and energy-temperature slopes, one phase consistently predicted to be more stable in agreement with the relative ease of appearance. Energy decompositions show that the electrostatic term is dominant and stabilizes with decreasing temperature. Dispersion and repulsion show the expected behavior, the former becoming more stabilizing at lower temperature in contrast with increasing repulsion at higher density. Absolute values and trends are very similar in the two phases, explaining the small total energy difference. Geometrical analyses of intermolecular contacts using fingerprint plots, as well as the study of molecular dipole moments as a function of T in the framework of the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules, reveal more details of phase stability.

Insights on spin polarization through the spin density source function.

Understanding how spin information is transmitted from paramagnetic to non-magnetic centers is crucial in advanced materials research and calls for novel interpretive tools. Herein, we show that the spin density at a point may be seen as determined by a local source function for such density, operating at all other points of space. Integration of the local source over Bader's quantum atoms measures their contribution in determining the spin polarization at any system's location. Each contribution may be then conveniently decomposed in a magnetic term due to the magnetic natural orbital(s) density and in a reaction or relaxation term due to the remaining orbitals density. A simple test case, 3B1 water, is chosen to exemplify whether an atom or group of atoms concur or oppose the paramagnetic center in determining a given local spin polarization. Discriminating magnetic from reaction or relaxation contributions to such behaviour strongly enhances chemical insight, though care needs to be paid to the large sensitivity of the latter contributions to the level of the computational approach and to the difficulty of singling out the magnetic orbitals in the case of highly correlated systems. Comparison of source function atomic contributions to the spin density with those reconstructing the electron density at a system's position, enlightens how the mechanisms which determine the two densities may in general differ and how diverse may be the role played by each system's atom in determining each of the two densities. These mechanisms reflect the quite diverse portraits of the electron density and electron spin density Laplacians, hence the different local concentration/dilution of the total and (α-ß) electron densities throughout the system. Being defined in terms of an observable, the source function for the spin density is also potentially amenable to experimental determination, as customarily performed for its electron density analogue.

A new monoclinic polymorph of 3-diethyl-amino-4-(4-meth-oxy-phen-yl)-1,1-dioxo-4H-1λ,2-thia-zete-4-carbonitrile.

A new monoclinic form of the title compound, C(14)H(17)N(3)O(3)S, has been found upon slow crystallization from water. Another monoclinic form of the compound was obtained previously from a mixture of dichloro-methane and diethyl ether [Clerici et al. (2002 ▶). Tetra-hedron, 58, 5173-5178]. Both phases crystallize in space group P2(1)/n with one mol-ecule in the asymmetric unit. The formally single exocyclic C-N bond that connects the -NEt(2) unit with the thia-zete ring is considerably shorter than the adjacent, formally double, endocyclic C=N bond. This is likely to be due to the extended conjugated system between the electron-donor diethyl-ammine fragment and the electron-withdrawing sulfonyl group. In the newly discovered polymorph, the meth-oxy group is rotated by almost 180° around the phen-yl-OCH(3) bond, resulting in a different mol-ecular conformation.