Trimethyltrioxane (Paraldehyde) and Its Halomethanes Complexes: Crystallization, Structures, and Analysis of Packing Motifs

Crystals of molecular complexes of
trimethyltrioxane (TMT) with
chloroform (CF), bromoform (BF), dichloromethane (DCM), and dibromomethane
(DBM) as well as those of pure TMT were grown in situ and characterized
by single crystal X-ray crystallography. The CF and BF complexes,
as well as those of DCM and DBM, are isostructural. The packing motifs
were examined using the vector analysis of pairwise energies of intermolecular
interactions. The method shows some deficiencies of the traditional
approach based on the analysis of geometrical parameters of short
intermolecular contacts.