Asymmetric Choreography in Pairs of Orthogonal Rotors

An asymmetric mechanism for correlated motion occurring in noninteracting pairs of adjacent orthogonal 1,4-bis­(carboxyethynyl)­bicyclo[1.1.1]­pentane (BCP) rotators 1 in the solid state is unraveled and shown to play an important role in understanding the dynamics in the crystalline rotor, Bu4N+[1–]·H2O. Single crystal X-ray diffraction and calculation of rotor–rotor interaction energies combined with variable-temperature, variable-field 1H spin–lattice relaxation experiments led to the identification and microscopic rationalization of two distinct relaxation processes.