Steric Hindrance in Organic Solids B. S. BIGGS Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York City
I
N A recent paper from these laboratories1 there was
presented dielectric evidence that molecular rotation occurs in the crystals 'of certain polysubstituted benzene derivatives. The molecules of most substances, on passing from the liquid into the solid state, lose both their translational and rotational motion and assume fixed positions in the crystal lattice. It is a definitive requirement of the solid state that translational motion must be lost, but it is now clear that molecules in a crystal do not necessarilv lose their rotational motion ~rovided that their own peripheries are smooth enough-that is, that the fields of force are small and regular enough that neighboring molecules do not block each other. In other words, if all molecules fell in the classes of perfect spheres,? perfect rods,a or perfect discs, then all molecules would rotate to some extent in the crystal lattice. The fact that relatively few molecules have the requisite symmetry has tended to obscure this generalization. The rotation here referred to is the same as that ordinarily considered to be characteristic of the molecules of liquid, except that in the case of flat molecules such as most benzene derivatives, this rotation in the crystal lattice is undoubtedly about the axis perpendicular to the plane of the ring. The method by which rotation is detected is the measurement of the dielectric constant. When a homogeneous organic compound exhibits a dielectric constant much greater than the square of its refractive
deviations from perfect symmetry which will still permit compounds of the substituted benzene class to rotate in the solid state. Figure 1 shows photographs of scale models of two hexa-substituted benzenes in which the substituents are chlorine and methyl groups, and illustrates their almost perfect circular symmetry. Figure 2 represents these same molecules in an idealized form in which the methyl groups are considered to be
spheres of about the same diameters as the chlorine atoms. The various ways in which such molecules can depart from perfect symmemay be conveniently divided intp three classes under the headings: (1) indentations of the periphery, (2) protrusions from the periphery in the plane of the disc, and (3) protrusions from the plane of the disc. Many compounds, of course, deviate in more than one of these ways. MOLECULES WITH INDENNZD PERIPHERIES
The examination of a number of penta-substituted benzenes has led to the conclusion that one indentation of the periphery equivalent in size to the space occupied by one substituent does not prevent the rotation of the molecule in the temperature range immediately below the melting point. Teffachlorotoluene, trichloro-oxylene and tricbloro-m-xyleue, all of which melt between 90" and 100°,rotate freely (i.e., as freely as they do in the liquid state) down to about 20°, and then index, it does so by virtue of the ability of a dipole to rotation ceases abruptly. They differ in this respect rotate under the influence of an applied field. Hence from the compounds of the more perfect disc type, the method is limited to polar compounds, although which rotate down to lower temperatures and finally non-polar compounds which meet the symmetry re- lose the ability to rotate, gradually rather than abquirements undoubtedly rotate also. The details of ruptly. This is interpreted as meaning that when the the measurements are described in the previous paper. molecules possess a relatively large amount of energy, as The object of this paper is to discuss the limiting they do a t high temperatures, they are able to over'WHITE. BIGGS,AND MORGAN, 1. Am. C h m . Sot., 62, 16 come the interlocking tendency of the indentations, (1940). but as the energy decreases interlocking sets in and BAKERAND SMYIH. 1.Am. Chem.SOC.. 61,2063,2798(1939); immediately spreads throughout the mass. It is inWRITE AND BISH~P, ibid.. 62,s (1940). teresting that a t this transition point there is a density a BAKERAND SMYTA, ibid., 60,1229 (1938).
change, in some materials amounting to about eight per cent, in keeping with the fact that an individual molecule would require more space for the rotating than for the interlocked form. Figure 3 shows the
have not been mea~ured.~As far as the data are available they point to the conclusion that while one small indentation leaves rotation possible, either one large indentation or two small ones will permit rotation to take place. MOLECULES WITH PROTRUSIONS IN THE PLANE OF THE RING
FIGURE 4
FIGURE3
Among compounds containing protrusions out of the circle but in the plane of the ring are chlorobenzene, a-dichlorobenzene, cyanobenzene, etc., where the original symmetry of the benzene ring has been destroyed by the protruding substituent. No mono-, di- or trisubstituted benzene of this type (Figure G) has been found to rotate in the crystalline solid. Hexa-substituted benzenes which represent this class and this class only are rare, since most groups which extend more than one atom away from the ring, such as the ethyl group, also extend out of the plane of the ring, Pentamethyl cyanobenzene, whose scale model is shown in Figure 7, is the only one which has been
usual model of trichloro-o-xylene and Figure 4 reprethis type of molecule with the represented by spheres. The hydrogen atom shown in this idealized model is smaller than the usual hydroaen model, and probably more nearly represents the relative size in these compounds in the solid state. Further proof of the steric nature of this effect may be found in the fact that when a compound with one indentation, such as trichloro-a-xylene, is diluted with fifteen per cent or more of one of the perfect discs, such as o-dichlor tetramethyl benzene, rotation continues a t temperatures much below the normal transition and finally stops gradually as does that of the perfect disc. Presumably the presence of a small amount of the perfect disc keeps the indentations far enough apart that interlocking is prevented. Cf the compounds containing four substituents, all of which are either methyl or chlorine groups, none has been found to rotate in the solid state. These include measured here. This compound is of particular in1,2,3,4-tetrachlorobenzene,(m. p. 41°), in which terest because its behavior seems to fall between that there is only one indentation (but a large one); and of the penta-substituted or transition type molecule 4,G-dichlor-m-xylene (m. p. 68'7,. 4,5-dichlor-a-xylene and the hexa-substituted perfect disc type. The mole(m. p. 76'), and 2,4,5-trichlorotoluene b.p. 8Z0), in cule rotates down to relatively low'temperatures and each of which there are two indentations +ara to each the rotation begins to decrease in the manner of the perfect discs, when finally a transition sets in and rotation ceases. This result seems to indicate that the deviation from perfect symmetry found in this molecule is slightly less than the maximum which would still permit rotation. If a c
