Competing intermolecular interactions in some `bridge‐flipped' isomeric phenylhydrazones

To examine the roles of competing intermolecular interactions in differentiating the molecular packing arrangements of some isomeric phenylhydrazones from each other, the crystal structures of five nitrile–halogen substituted phenylhydrazones and two nitro–halogen substituted phenylhydrazones have been determined and are described here: (E)‐4‐cyanobenzaldehyde 4‐chlorophenylhydrazone, C₁₄H₁₀ClN₃, (Ia); (E)‐4‐cyanobenzaldehyde 4‐bromophenylhydrazone, C₁₄H₁₀BrN₃, (Ib); (E)‐4‐cyanobenzaldehyde 4‐iodophenylhydrazone, C₁₄H₁₀IN₃, (Ic); (E)‐4‐bromobenzaldehyde 4‐cyanophenylhydrazone, C₁₄H₁₀BrN₃, (IIb); (E)‐4‐iodobenzaldehyde 4‐cyanophenylhydrazone, C₁₄H₁₀IN₃, (IIc); (E)‐4‐chlorobenzaldehyde 4‐nitrophenylhydrazone, C₁₃H₁₀ClN₃O₂, (III); and (E)‐4‐nitrobenzaldehyde 4‐chlorophenylhydrazone, C₁₃H₁₀ClN₃O₂, (IV). Both (Ia) and (Ib) are disordered (less than 7% of the molecules have the minor orientation in each structure). Pairs (Ia)/(Ib) and (IIb)/(IIc), related by a halogen exchange, are isomorphous, but none of the `bridge‐flipped' isomeric pairs, viz. (Ib)/(IIb), (Ic)/(IIc) or (III)/(IV), is isomorphous. In the nitrile–halogen structures (Ia)–(Ic) and (IIb)–(IIc), only the bridge N—H group and not the bridge C—H group acts as a hydrogen‐bond donor to the nitrile group, but in the nitro–halogen structures (III) (with Z′ = 2) and (IV), both the bridge N—H group and the bridge C—H group interact with the nitro group as hydrogen‐bond donors, albeit via different motifs. The occurrence here of the bridge C—H contact with a hydrogen‐bond acceptor suggests the possibility that other pairs of `bridge‐flipped' isomeric phenylhydrazones may prove to be isomorphous, regardless of the change from isomer to isomer in the position of the N—H group within the bridge.