Methyl tetra-O-acetyl-α-d-glucopyranuronate: crystal structure and influence on the crystallisation of the β anomer

Methyl tetra-O-acetyl-β-d-glucopyranuronate (1) and methyl tetra-O-acetyl-α-d-glucopyranuronate (3) were isolated as crystalline solids and their crystal structures were obtained. That of the β anomer (1) was the same as that reported by Root et al., while anomer (3) was found to crystallise in the orthorhombic space group P212121 with two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit. No other crystal forms were found for either compound upon recrystallisation from a range of solvents. The α anomer (3) was found to be an impurity in initially precipitated batches of β-anomer (1) in quantities <3%; however, it was possible to remove the α impurity either by recrystallisation or by efficient washing, i.e. the α anomer is not incorporated inside the β anomer crystals. The β anomer (1) was found to grow as prisms or needles elongated in the a crystallographic direction in the absence of the α impurity, while the presence of the α anomer (3) enhanced this elongation.

Cocrystallisation involving the thioamide, amide and imide functional groups

The work presented in this dissertation focused on the development and characterisation of novel cocrystals that incorporated the thioamide, amide and imide functional groups. A particular emphasis was placed on the characterisation of these cocrystals by single crystal X-ray diffraction methods. In Chapter One a summary of the intermolecular interactions utilised in this work and a short review of the solid state and multicomponent systems is provided. A brief introduction to the ways in which different multicomponent systems can be distinguished, crystal engineering strategies and a number of cocrystal applications highlights the importance the understanding of intermolecular interactions can have on the physical and chemical properties of crystalline materials. Chapter Two is the first Results and Discussion chapter and includes an introduction that is specific to the chapter. The main body of this work focuses on the primary aromatic thioamide functional group and its propensity to cocrystallise with a number of sulfoxides. Unlike the amide functional group, thioamides are not commonly employed in cocrystallisation studies. This chapter presents the first direct comparison between the cocrystallisation abilities of these two functional groups and the intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions present in the cocrystal structures are examined. Chapter Three describes the crystal landscape of a short series of secondary aromatic amides and their analogous thioamides. Building on the results obtained in Chapter Two, a cocrystal screen of the secondary thioamides with the sulfoxide functional group was carried out in order to determine the effect removing a hydrogen bond had on the supramolecular synthons observed in the cocrystals. These secondary thioamides are also utilised in Chapter Four, which examines their halogen bonding capabilities with two organoiodine coformers: 1,2- and 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzene. Chapter Five explores the cocrystallisation abilities of three related cyclic imides as coformers for cocrystallisation with a range of commonly used coformers. Chapter Six is an overall conclusions chapter that highlights the findings of the results presented in Chapters Two to Five. Chapter Seven details the instrument and experimental data for the compounds and cocrystals discussed in the Results and Discussion Chapters. The accompanying CD contains all of the crystallographic data in .cif format for the novel single crystal structures characterised in this work.