A family of polar crystals: Design and synthesis

ORGN 552

Lester T. Gray III, gray057@bama.ua.edu and Silas C. Blackstock, blackstock@ua.edu. Department of Chemistry, The University of Alabama, P.O. Box 870336, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
We have synthesized a series of m-phenylenediamine derivatives which exhibit the preferential formation of a dipolar crystalline lattice. This inherent fidelity of the polar motif has lead us to engineer new analogs intended to either reinforce or perturb the observed crystal packing. Through the correlation of structural modification to the molecule with that of the resultant crystal structure, we hope to gain a greater understanding into the underlying mechanisms involved in the dipolar ordering of the lattice.