The revived interest in halogen bonding as a tool in pharmaceutical cocrystals and drug design has indicated that cyano–halogen interactions could play an important role. The crystal structures of four closely related δ-keto esters, which differ only in the substitution at a single C atom (by H, OMe, Cl and Br), are compared, namely ethyl 2-cyano-5-oxo-5-phenyl-3-(piperidin-1-yl)pent-2-enoate, C19H22N2O3, (1), ethyl 2-cyano-5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-5-oxo-3-(piperidin-1-yl)pent-2-enoate, C20H24N2O4, (2), ethyl 5-(4-chlorophenyl)-2-cyano-5-oxo-3-(piperidin-1-yl)pent-2-enoate, C19H21ClN2O3, (3), and the previously published ethyl 5-(4-bromophenyl)-2-cyano-5-oxo-3-(piperidin-1-yl)pent-2-enoate, C19H21BrN2O3, (4) [Maurya, Vasudev & Gupta (2013).RSC Adv.3, 12955–12962]. The molecular conformations are very similar, while there are differences in the molecular assemblies. Intermolecular C—H...O hydrogen bonds are found to be the primary interactions in the crystal packing and are present in all four structures. The halogenated derivatives have additional aromatic–aromatic interactions and cyano–halogen interactions, further stabilizing the molecular packing. A database analysis of cyano–halogen interactions using the Cambridge Structural Database [CSD; Groom & Allen (2014).Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.53, 662–671] revealed that about 13% of the organic molecular crystals containing both cyano and halogen groups have cyano–halogen interactions in their packing. Three geometric parameters for the C—X...N[triple-bond]C interaction (X = F, Cl, Br or I),viz.the N...Xdistance and the C—X...N and C—N...Xangles, were analysed. The results indicate that all the short cyano–halogen contacts in the CSD can be classified as halogen bonds, which are directional noncovalent interactions.
Geometrical and energetic characteristics of Se…Se interactions in crystal structures of organoselenium molecules