Electronic conditions for anticonvulsant activity of diphenylsuccinimides: Crystal and molecular structure of 1,1-diphenyl-N-(2-pyridyl)-succinimide

The X-ray structure of the title compound was performed to serve as the basis to find the “right” conformations among the minimum energy conformations derived from molecular modeling. The crystals of C21H16N2O2 are monoclinic, space groupP2l ln (Z=4);a=9.038(2),b=17.552(4),c=11.111(2)A, β=91.36(3)°. The present study was performed on eight derivatives of diphenylsuccinimides, of which six were tested against the maximal electrical shock (MES). A theoretical test, based on the sign of the difference between the minima of the molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) at the carbonyl oxygens of the imide five-membered ring, designed for the purpose of an earlier study of phenylsuccinimides, was applied. This test confirmed the inactivity of the screened compounds and indicated that the remaining two diphenylsuccinimides are also inactive.