A crystal engineering weaving of half-spiral molecules by hydrogen bonding chains into tube structures

Abstract

Double-headed trifluorolactate (1) (benzene-1,3-(S,S)-bis(butyl-3,3,3-trifluorolactate), is composed of a bundle of tubes held together by two lines of infinite hydrogen bonding chains. Two neighboring hydrogen-bonded molecules on the same hydrogen bonding chain are not connected directly to the other hydrogen bonding chain. That is, the tube structure cannot be composed by simple layer stacks.