From racemic compounds through metastable to stable racemic conglomerates: crystallization features of chiral halogen and cyano monosubstituted phenyl glycerol ethers

Stereoselective Crystallization of Chiral 3,4-Dimethylphenyl Glycerol Ether Complicated by Plurality of Crystalline Modifications

Spontaneous resolution of Pasteur’s salt was historically the first way to obtain pure enantiomers from the racemate. The current increase in interest in the direct racemates resolution during crystallization is largely due to the opened prospects for the industrial application of this approach. The chiral 3-(3,4-dimethylphenoxy) propane-1,2-diol 1 is a synthetic precursor of practically useful amino alcohols, the enantiomers of which exhibit different biological effects. In this work, it was first discovered that racemic diol 1 is prone to spontaneous resolution. However, the crystallization process is complicated by the existence, along with the conglomerate, of two other crystalline forms. Using the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) approach, methods have been developed to obtain individual metastable phases, and all identified modifications ((R)-1, (R+S)-1, α-rac-1, β-rac-1) were ranked by energy. The IR spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) methods demonstrated the identity of the first two forms and their proximity to the third, while β-rac-1 is significantly different from the rest. The crystal structure of the forms (R)-1 and α-rac-1 was established by the single crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) method. Preliminary information on the structure of β-rac-1 phase was obtained by the PXRD approach. Based on the information received, the experimental conditions for a successful direct resolution of racemic 1 into individual enantiomers by a preferential crystallization procedure were selected.

Prenucleation Self-Assembly and Chiral Discrimination Mechanisms during Solution Crystallisation of Racemic Diprophylline

The crystallisation behaviour of (RS)-diprophylline (DPL) in two different solvents is investigated to assess the incidence of solvated pre-associations on nucleation, crystal growth and chiral discrimination. In the solvated state, Raman spectroscopy shows that dimeric associations similar to those depicted in the crystalline solid solution (ssRII) predominate in isopropanol (IPA), which may account for the systematic spontaneous nucleation of this crystal form from this solvent. By contrast, spontaneous nucleation in DMF yields the stable racemic compound RI, consistently with the distinct features of the Raman spectrum collected in this solvent. A crystal growth study of ssRII in IPA reveals that the crystal habitus is impacted by the solution enantiomeric excess; this is explained by increased competition between homo- and heterochiral pre-associations. This is supported by a molecular modelling study on the enantiomeric selectivity of the DPL crystal lattices. The combination of assessment methods on solution chemistry, nucleation and chiral discrimination provides methodological tools from which the occurrence of solid solutions can be rationalised.