Polarized IR Spectra of the Hydrogen Bond in Two Different Oxindole Polymorphs with Cyclic Dimers in Their Lattices

Unprecedented Packing Polymorphism of Oxindole: An Exploration Inspired by Crystal Structure Prediction

Crystal polymorphism, characterized by different packing arrangements of the same compound, strongly ties to the physical properties of a molecule. Determining the polymorphic landscape is complex and time-consuming, with the number of experimentally observed polymorphs varying widely from molecule to molecule. Furthermore, disappearing polymorphs, the phenomenon whereby experimentally observed forms cannot be reproduced, pose a significant challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. Herein, we focused on oxindole (OX), a small rigid molecule with four known polymorphs, including a reported disappearing form. Using crystal structure prediction (CSP), we assessed OX solid-state landscape and thermodynamic stability by comparing predicted structures with experimentally known forms. We then performed melt and solution crystallization in bulk and nanoconfinement to validate our predictions. These experiments successfully reproduced the known forms and led to the discovery of four novel polymorphs. Our approach provided insights into reconstructing disappearing polymorphs and building more comprehensive polymorph landscapes. These results also establish a new record of packing polymorphism for rigid molecules.

Single-crystal X-ray structural characterization, Hirshfeld surface analysis, electronic properties, NBO, and NLO calculations and vibrational analysis of the monomeric and dimeric forms of 5-nitro-2-oxindole

The information of interactions is given by RDG versus sign(λ₂)ρ product of the sign of the second largest eigenvalue of electron density Hessian matrix and electron density) investigated by RDG surface analysis.

A unified quantum model susceptible to elucidate the dissimilarity of IR spectral density of dicarboxylic acid crystals: Phthalic and terephthalic acid crystals cases

Over the last decades, several approaches have been developed for elucidating the infrared spectral density of dicarboxylic acid crystals, which has been served as prototype for determining hydrogen bonds dynamics. These approaches differ in how accurately the simulated spectra can superimpose the experimental ones. In this study, we present a superdimer quantum approach susceptible to elucidate the infrared spectral properties of some particular dicarboxylic acid crystals using a newly proposed algorithm, which favors the rule of Davydov coupling in the generation of the spectra. The approach, which is herein effectively applied to terephthalic and phthalic acid dimer crystals, ascribes the non-conventional IR spectral properties of these particular acid crystals to the existence of superdimer structure in their lattices. In this superdimer structure, a strong vibronic coupling mechanism, namely Davydov coupling, takes place between the proton stretching vibrations in the (COOH)₂ cycles. This strong coupling exciton, generated by the resonance arising in the two coupled (COOH)₂ cycles of the aromatic rings of the superdimer, in conjunction with the strong anharmonic coupling between the fast and slow modes of each hydrogen bonds provide a strong support basis for a common explanation of the physical properties of these two different crystalline systems. The numerical simulations, involving the implications of the superdimer model, are systematically correlated with the experimental spectra. A decent agreement between the evaluated spectra and the experimental bandshapes of terephthalic and phthalic dicarboxylic acid crystals was obtained using a set of physically sound parameters as inputs in the theoretical formulation. The superdimer quantum approach thereby underscore the potential of the dynamical cooperative interactions between "Davydov coupling" and "strong anharmonic coupling" mechanisms in the generation of the spectral features of terephthalic and phthalic dicarboxylic acid crystals, suggesting that the congregated effects of these two mechanisms can be considered as the most reliable source of the non-conventional IR spectral properties observed. It is therefore expected that this novel algorithm reduces the discrepancies between the simulated spectra compared to the experimental one and simplify the computation of spectra in more complex hydrogen bonded systems.

How far the vibrational exciton interactions are responsible for the generation of the infrared spectra of oxindole crystals?

Oxindole (indolin-2-one, Ox) is a unique and a crucial molecular system in spectroscopic studies. Indole is the core structure of many substances found in the human body (tryptophan, serotonin) and the indole alkaloids have highly differentiated pharmacological properties such as analgesic, anti-fever and anti-inflammatory. The Ox's structural results given in the Cambridge Structural Database revealed the existence of only one crystalline form of Ox, referred to the α-form. However, we have experimentally noticed the existence of two polymorphic forms during the crystallization of Ox. Furthermore, the significant spectral differences that we have observed in the solid state infrared spectra of these two forms additionally confirm the existence of the polymorphism phenomenon. Of the four polymorphic forms of Ox, two of them - α - and β-forms - were of particular interest. In the crystalline lattices of both polymorphs, we observed a similar pattern of molecular arrangements giving rise to the supramolecular synthon according to the terminology of Etter. Moreover, hydrogen bonds in the dimer of the α-form are found to be non-equivalent (non-centrosymmetric dimers), having a length of 2797 Å and 2979 Å, respectively. Comparatively, in the most densely packed crystalline structure of Ox, the β-form, the dimer is formed by a pair of almost identical intermolecular hydrogen bonds and consequently the crystals of β-form exhibited spectral properties typical to centrosymmetric hydrogen bond dimers. In addition, the spectroscopic studies that we have conducted to polymorphic forms of Ox, isotopically diluted with deuterium, show the dramatic influence of isotopic substitution in the hydrogen bridge on the infrared spectra of hydrogen bonding. Thus, the main goal of this work is the proposition of a theoretical approach that can describe the main features of the crystalline infrared spectra of the Ox polymorphs. The proposed approach is based on the phenomenon of the exciton coupling results directly from intermolecular interactions in the vibrationally excited state which leads to the delocalization of the excitation over the molecules in the lattice and to the Davydov splitting effect in the crystalline spectra.

Polymorphs of oxindole as the core structures in bioactive compounds

A new polymorph of oxindole (termed as “δ-form”) has been found and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

Structural consequences of weak interactions in dispirooxindole derivatives

Spiro scaffolds are being increasingly utilized in drug discovery due to their inherent three-dimensionality and structural variations, resulting in new synthetic routes to introduce spiro building blocks into more pharmaceutically active molecules. Multicomponent cascade reactions, involving the in situ generation of carbonyl ylides from α-diazocarbonyl compounds and aldehydes, and 1,3-dipolar cycloadditon with 3-arylideneoxindoles gave a novel class of dispirooxindole derivatives, namely 1,1''-dibenzyl-5'-(4-chlorophenyl)-4'-phenyl-4',5'-dihydrodispiro[indoline-3,2'-furan-3',3''-indoline]-2,2''-dione, C44H33ClN2O3, (I), 1''-acetyl-1-benzyl-5'-(4-chlorophenyl)-4'-phenyl-4',5'-dihydrodispiro[indoline-3,2'-furan-3',3''-indoline]-2,2''-dione, C39H29ClN2O4, (II), 1''-acetyl-1-benzyl-4',5'-diphenyl-4',5'-dihydrodispiro[indoline-3,2'-furan-3',3''-indoline]-2,2''-dione, C39H30N2O4, (III), and 1''-acetyl-1-benzyl-4',5'-diphenyl-4',5'-dihydrodispiro[indoline-3,2'-furan-3',3''-indoline]-2,2''-dione acetonitrile hemisolvate, C39H30N2O4·0.5C2H3N, (IV). All four compounds exist as racemic mixtures of the SSSR and RRRS stereoisomers. In these structures, the two H atoms of the dihydrofuran ring and the two substituted oxindole rings are in a trans orientation, facilitating intramolecular C-H···O and π-π interactions. These weak interactions play a prominent role in the structural stability and aid the highly regio- and diastereoselective synthesis. In each of the four structures, the molecular assembly in the crystal is also governed by weak noncovalent interactions. Compound (IV) is the solvated analogue of (III) and the two compounds show similar structural features.

Inter-hydrogen bond coupling in crystals of 3-phenylpyrazole polymorphs investigated by polarized IR spectroscopy

The remarkably strong differences in the fine structure patterns of the νN-H and νN-D bands, temperature and H/D isotopic effects in crystals of two 3-phenylpyrazole (3PhPz) polymorphs, with tetrameric and hexameric hydrogen bond aggregates, were examined by polarized IR spectroscopy, aided by the calculations utilizing the "strong-coupling" model. Experimental and theoretical approaches have suggested that the anti-co-operativity of hydrogen bonds is the main factor responsible for the differences in the spectral properties of both polymorphs. This interaction affects hydrogen-bond geometry of the associates constituting the lattices and in consequence decides about the relative contribution of two different exciton coupling mechanism, "through-space" (SS) and "tail-to-head" (TH), in the spectra generation. The relative contribution of each individual exciton coupling mechanism in the spectra generation is temperature-dependent. In tetramers the TH coupling mechanism dominates at low temperatures, whereas the role of the SS mechanism increases at higher temperatures. For the hexamers the SS mechanism dominates in the wide temperature range. The two types of 3PhPz associates exhibit two different ways of occurring of the H/D isotopic recognition in the crystal hydrogen bonds. In the tetrameric polymorph identical hydrogen isotope atoms exist in entire hydrogen-bonded cycle of 3PhPz. In the case of 3PhPz hexamers, the H/D isotopic recognition mechanism involves pairs of the closely-spaced hydrogen bonds in a cycle.