The quasi-symmetric OHN and ODN bridges in the adducts of 3,5-dimethylpyridine with 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid

The crystal structure of the adduct of 3,5-dimethylpyridine and 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid (DMP-DNB) has been determined at room temperature and 80 K for both undeuterated and deuterated compounds. The monoclinic crystals are isomorphous, space group P2₁/c and Z = 4. Very strong OHN hydrogen bonds are almost linear with fully disordered (1:1) bridge hydrogen atoms between oxygen and nitrogen atoms. This is well reflected in the difference in electron density maps the contours of which depend both on cooling and deuteration. The intramolecular hydrogen bond lengths are 2.550(2) Å for the (OHN) and 2.563(2) Å for (ODN) at room temperature and 2.529(2) Å for (OHN) and 2.531(2) Å for (ODN) at 80 K. Therefore, there is a small but meaningful isotope effect upon the O…N hydrogen bridge length at room temperature and no Ubbelohde isotope effect is observed at 80 K. The infra-red spectra show very broad stretching protonic bands in the 200–1600 cm⁻¹ range. The isotopic ratio v(H)/v(D) at room temperature is about 1.1.