Differences on herringbone molecular arrangement in two forms of long-chain 1,ω-alkanediols (CnH2n+2O₂ with n = 10, 11, 12, 13) are explained from the analysis of O-H···O hydrogen-bond sequences in infinite chains and the role of a C-H···O intramolecular hydrogen-bond in stabilization of a gauche defect, as well as the inter-grooving effectiveness on molecular packing. GIXD (Glancing Incidence X-ray Diffraction) experiments were conducted on polycrystalline monophasic samples. Diffracted intensities were treated with the multi-axial March-Dollase method to correlate energetic and geometrical features of molecular interactions with the crystalline morphology and textural pattern of samples. The monoclinic (P2₁/c, Z = 2) crystals of the even-numbered members (n = 10, 12; DEDOL and DODOL, respectively) are diametrical prisms with combined form {104}/{-104}/{001} and present a two-fold platelet-like preferred orientation, whereas orthorhombic (P2₁2₁2₁, Z = 4) odd-numbered members (n = 11, 13; UNDOL and TRDOL, respectively) present a dominant needle-like orientation on direction [101] (fiber texture). We show that crystalline structures of medium complexity and their microstructures can be determined from rapid GIXD experiments from standard radiation, combined with molecular replacement procedure using crystal structures of compounds with higher chain lengths as reference data.
Keywords: C-H···O and O-H···O hydrogen bonds; Glancing Incidence X-ray diffraction; Rietveld refinement; alkanediol forms and polytypes; multiaxial preferred orientation.