Structures and phase transition of three isomers of 1-phenylindolin-2-one derivatives: 6-chloro-1-phenylindolin-2-one, 4-chloro-1-phenylindolin-2-one and 1-(3-chlorophenyl)indolin-2-one
Three 1-phenylindolin-2-one derivatives, namely 6-chloro-1-phenylindolin-2-one (A), 4-chloro-1-phenylindolin-2-one (B) and 1-(3-chlorophenyl)indolin-2-one (C), all C14H10ClNO, have been synthesized and the structures of these compounds at room temperature (A RT, B RT and C RT) and low temperature (A LT, B LT and C LT) have been determined. Crystal A at 295 K (A RT) crystallized in the monoclinic space group P21/c and the phenyl ring of the unique molecule exhibits disorder over two positions. At low temperature, the disorder disappeared and crystal A at 90 K (A LT) crystallized in the triclinic space group P\overline{1} with a doubled unit-cell volume and four molecules in the asymmetric unit. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed a low oscillation barrier (0.24 kcal mol−1) of the phenyl ring of molecule A and the phase transition from the P21/c structure to the P\overline{1} structure can be interpreted in terms of the freezing out of the two conformations at low temperature. Crystal B retains space group P21/c in the temperature range from 100 to 297 K. A kind of obtuse-cell to acute-cell change can be recognized; if the unit cell of B LT at 100 K is set to be a standard obtuse cell [β = 90.341 (2)°] and the cell is kept untransformed in the course of temperature changing, the cell of B RT at 297 K was found to be acute [β = 89.288 (2)°]. The molecules in structure C are packed in layers, with C—H...O hydrogen bonds between neighbouring layers.