Harrison et al., 2006) of the syntheses and structures of chalcone derivatives, the title compound, (I), (Fig. 1) is described here. It arose as an unexpected product from an attempt to prepare the symmetric methylthio-substituted bis-chalcone 1,5-di(4-methylthiophenyl)penta-1,4-dien-3-one.The dihedral angle between the mean planes of the aromatic rings in (I) is 31.87 (14)°. The molecule of (I) is chiral. In the arbitrarily chose asymmetric molecule, C11 has R configuration, but crystal symmetry generates a racemic mixture.In the crystal, adjacent molecules of (I) interact by way of N-H···N hydrogen bonds (Table 1) to result in C(2) chains (Etter, 1990) propagating in [010] (Fig. 2).
ExperimentalA solution of 25 ml of NH 3 in 150 ml of water and 100 ml of ethanol was placed in a 500-ml bolt-head flask provided with a mechanical stirrer. The flask was immersed in a water bath and the temperature of the solution was maintained at 393-398 K. The solution was vigorously stirred and one half of a previously prepared mixture of 4-(methylthio)benzaldehyde (38 g, 0.25 mol) and acetone (7.3 g, 0.125 mol) was added. A flocculent precipitate was formed within 2-3 minutes. After 15 minutes, the remainder of the aldehyde-acetone mixture was added and the stirring was continued for a further 40 minutes.The crude product obtained was filtered and washed with cold water to eliminate the alkali (yield: 70%). The compound was purified from ethanol-dioxane mixture (8:2 v/v). The crystal growth was done in acetone:toluene (1:1 v/v) by slow evaporation to yield amber plates and slabs of (I) (m.p. 348-353 K).
RefinementBoth terminal methyl groups are disordered over two positions, with occupancies of 0.557 (10):0.443 (10) for C18A/C18B and 0.642 (9):0.358 (9) for C19A/C19B (occupancy sums constrained to unity in both cases).The hydrogen atoms were geometrically placed (C-H = 0.93-0.98 Å, N-H = 0.89 Å) and refined as riding with U iso (H) = 1.2U eq (C,N) or 1.5U eq (methyl C).