Multicomponent
crystals have received significant attention in
recent years, given their considerable potential to develop new products
or improve the properties of known ones. Many studies have examined
the synthesis and structure of multicomponent (mostly binary) crystals.
The thermodynamic aspects related to the driving force for their formation
and stability are, however, still relatively unexplored. This work
describes a structure–energetics study of binary crystals consisting
of glycine (Gly) and fumaric acid (FA) or maleic acid (MA), two regioisomers
with different proton transfer abilities. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction
experiments showed that the mechanochemically synthesized materials
corresponded to a new FA:Gly2 cocrystal and a MA:Gly salt
that had been previously prepared by crystallization from solution.
A packing analysis further suggested that the stoichiometry difference
(1:2 vs 1:1) is possibly related to differences in hydrogen bonding
ability between FA and MA. Calorimetric and solubility measurements
indicated that: (i) The two binary crystals are stable relative to
decomposition into their precursors under ambient conditions (298.15
K; 1 bar), since the process is endergonic (Δr
G
m° > 0) in both cases. (ii) The stability
is of enthalpic nature because Δr
H
m° > 0 and Δr
H
m° > |TΔr
S
m°|. (iii) The formation of a salt, rather
than a
cocrystal, does not bring any notable stability advantage, since the
obtained Δr
G
m° for
MA:Gly exceeds that found for FA:Gly2 by ∼1.0 kJ·mol–1 only. (iv) The similarity appears to be originated
by an enthalpy–entropy compensation effect: the Δr
H
m° contribution (reflecting
lattice enthalpy differences between the binary crystals and their
components) is approximately twice as large for MA:Gly than for FA:Gly2, but the difference is balanced, to a considerable extent,
by a larger and opposing TΔr
S
m° contribution. (v) The number of classical
hydrogen bonds established by a FA or MA molecule with Gly does not
seem to be a reliable predictor of stability, as six of these bonds
are present in FA:Gly2 and only four in MA:Gly. (vi) Finally,
the results here obtained show that the formation of a binary crystal
is not necessarily advantageous in terms of solubility enhancement.
Indeed, while the solubility of FA from FA:Gly2 was found
to be ∼4 times larger than that of pure FA, no analogous benefit
was observed for the MA:Gly salt, which exhibited a ∼3 times
lower MA solubility when compared with pure MA.