A comparison of the behaviour of two closely related xanthenyl-derived host compounds in the presence of vaporous dihaloalkanes

The behaviour of two closely related xanthone-derived host compounds, N,N’-bis(9-phenyl-9-xanthenyl)ethylenediamine and N,N′-bis(9-phenyl-9-thioxanthenyl)ethylenediamine, which formed complexes with CH2Cl2, CH2Br2 and CH2I2 after recrystallization from each of these solvents, was compared when subjected to these guest and guest mixtures in the vapour phase. Surprisingly, these hosts displayed entirely different behaviours under these conditions, with only the thioxanthenyl derivative possessing the ability to clathrate these guests (or guest mixtures) from the gas phase; this ability was entirely absent in the xanthenyl host. All novel complexes were subjected to single crystal diffraction analyses in order to investigate the interactions present, as well as thermal and Hirshfeld surface experiments. The host selectivity and host–guest interactions were correlated with the differences observed in the recrystallization and vapour experiments. Furthermore, data obtained for the novel complexes by employing various analytical techniques were related back to the observed selectivity order.