C-Alkyl (including C-arylmethyl) derivatives of Meldrum's acids are attractive building blocks in organic synthesis, mainly due to the unusually high acidity of the resulting compounds. Three examples, namely 5-[4-(diethylamino)benzyl]-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione, C17H23NO4, (I), 2,2-dimethyl-5-(2,4,6-trimethoxybenzyl)-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione, C16H20O7, (II), and 5-(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzyl)-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione, C15H18O7, (III), have been synthesized, characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy, and studied by single-crystal X-ray structure analysis. The nature of the different substituents resulted in remarkable differences in both the molecular conformations and the crystal packing arrangements. The presence of a substituent with a basic centre in compound (I) leads to the formation of an inner salt accompanied by drastic changes in the conformation of the 1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione fragment. By virtue of strong N-H···O hydrogen bonds, the residues are assembled into infinite chains with the graph-set descriptor C(10). Compound (II) contains methoxy groups in both the ortho- and para-positions of the arylmethyl fragment. Because of the absence of classical hydrogen-bond donors in this structure, the crystal packing is controlled by van der Waals forces and weak C-H···O interactions. Compound (III) contains methoxy groups in both meta-positions and a hydroxy group in the para-position. Supramolecular tetrameric synthons which comprise hydrogen-bonded dimers associated into tetramers through π-π interactions of overlapping benzene rings were observed.
Keywords: arylmethyl Meldrum's acid; crystal packing arrangements; crystal structure; molecular conformations; organic synthesis; zwitterion.