Pre-organization of diarylideneacetonyl crownophanes in single crystals to photochemical transformations

Specific features of crystal packings and pre-organization of diarylideneacetonyl crownophane molecules to solid-phase photochemical transformations were studied on the basis of X-ray diffraction data using methods of simulation of molecular crystal packings. The tendency of the most part of the synthesized macrocyclic E,E-isomers to the formation of homochiral crystals (P212121) was revealed, while (23E,26E)-11,12,14,15-tetrahydro-8H-dinaphtho-[2,1-k:1′,2′-r][1,4,7,10]tetraoxacyclononadecine-23,26-dien-25(9H)-one is prone to polymorphism. A phenomenon of solid-phase stereospecific photochemical dimerization of molecules according to the syn-head-to-tail type without crystal destruction (single crystal—single crystal transformation) was found for one of the modifications of this crownophane.