Non-coplanar aromatic carboxylic acids: Unusual conformation-dependent self-assembly and pseudopolymorphism of di(3-carboxymesityl)methane

The dicarboxylic acids 3 and 4, i.e., di(3-carboxy-2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)methane and di(3-carboxyphenyl)methane, are created by a methylene tethering of mesitoic acid and benzoic acid, respectively. These diacids may explore two low energy conformations, viz., syn and anti. Whereas the syn-diacid 3 is found to undergo self-assembly in the solid state via a very rare tetrameric motif, the anti-diacid 3 is found to exhibit pseudopolymorphism with guest molecules such as DMSO and PhOH–H2O. The unusual patterns of assembly and the occurrence of pseudopolymorphism for the syn and anti conformers, respectively, appear to emanate from an unique structural feature that emerges as a consequence of tethering. It appears that the molecules that contain strongly interacting functional groups in non-coplanar aryl rings will suffer from packing problems, which manifests itself in a new mode of packing and the phenomenon of pseudopolymorphism.