A structural systematic study of four isomers of difluoro‐N‐(3‐pyridyl)benzamide

The four isomers 2,4‐, (I), 2,5‐, (II), 3,4‐, (III), and 3,5‐difluoro‐N‐(3‐pyridyl)benzamide, (IV), all with formula C₁₂H₈F₂N₂O, display molecular similarity, with interplanar angles between the C₆/C₅N rings ranging from 2.94 (11)° in (IV) to 4.48 (18)° in (I), although the amide group is twisted from either plane by 18.0 (2)–27.3 (3)°. Compounds (I) and (II) are isostructural but are not isomorphous. Intermolecular N—H...O=C interactions form one‐dimensional C(4) chains along [010]. The only other significant interaction is C—H...F. The pyridyl (py) N atom does not participate in hydrogen bonding; the closest H...N_py contact is 2.71 Å in (I) and 2.69 Å in (II). Packing of pairs of one‐dimensional chains in a herring‐bone fashion occurs viaπ‐stacking interactions. Compounds (III) and (IV) are essentially isomorphous (their a and b unit‐cell lengths differ by 9%, due mainly to 3,4‐F₂ and 3,5‐F₂ substitution patterns in the arene ring) and are quasi‐isostructural. In (III), benzene rotational disorder is present, with the meta F atom occupying both 3‐ and 5‐F positions with site occupancies of 0.809 (4) and 0.191 (4), respectively. The N—H...N_py intermolecular interactions dominate as C(5) chains in tandem with C—H...N_py interactions. C—H...O=C interactions form R₂²(8) rings about inversion centres, and there are π–π stacks about inversion centres, all combining to form a three‐dimensional network. By contrast, (IV) has no strong hydrogen bonds; the N—H...N_py interaction is 0.3 Å longer than in (III). The carbonyl O atom participates only in weak interactions and is surrounded in a square‐pyramidal contact geometry with two intramolecular and three intermolecular C—H...O=C interactions. Compounds (III) and (IV) are interesting examples of two isomers with similar unit‐cell parameters and gross packing but which display quite different intermolecular interactions at the primary level due to subtle packing differences at the atom/group/ring level arising from differences in the peripheral ring‐substitution patterns.