A rational study of crystal engineering of supramolecular assemblies of 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid.

Supramolecular assemblies of 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid, 1, with aza donor molecules such as 1,10-phenanthroline, 2, 1,7-phenanthroline, 3, phenazine, 4, 4-(N,N-dimethylamino)pyridine, 5, 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethene, 6, and 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane, 7, have been synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. All the complexes crystallize in the triclinic, Ponemacr; space group. In the complexes of 2 and 4, water is also present in the resultant assembly, but the complexes of 5, 6, and 7 crystallize without any water molecules or solvent of crystallization. However, 3 forms two types of complexes, a hydrate and a nonhydrate complex, depending upon whether water is used as a solvent or not. These assemblies divide into two classes, host-guest systems (with aza molecules being in the channels created by the acid molecules) and assemblies with infinite molecular tapes. While the assemblies of the compounds 2, 4, and 5 belong to the former class, the assemblies of compounds 6 and 7 form molecular tapes, which are arranged in two dimensions to form sheet structures. The two structures of 3, in fact, bridge the two classes with each one falling into different categories.