The inner‐salt zwitterion,the dihydrochloride dihydrate and the dimethyl sulfoxide disolvate of 3,6‐bis(pyridin‐2‐yl)pyrazine‐2,5‐dicarboxylic acid

In the inner‐salt zwitterion of 3,6‐bis(pyridin‐2‐yl)pyrazine‐2,5‐dicarboxylic acid, (I), namely 5‐carboxy‐3‐(pyridin‐1‐ium‐2‐yl)‐6‐(pyridin‐2‐yl)pyrazine‐2‐carboxylate, [C₁₆H₁₀N₄O₄, (Ia)], the pyrazine ring has a twist–boat conformation. The opposing pyridine and pyridinium rings are almost perpendicular to one another, with a dihedral angle of 80.24 (18)°, and are inclined to the pyrazine mean plane by 36.83 (17) and 43.74 (17)°, respectively. The carboxy and carboxylate groups are inclined to the mean plane of the pyrazine ring by 43.60 (17) and 45.46 (17)°, respectively. In the crystal structure, the molecules are linked via N—H...O and O—H...O hydrogen bonds, leading to the formation of double‐stranded chains propagating in the [010] direction. On treating (Ia) with aqueous 1 M HCl, the diprotonated dihydrate form 2,2′‐(3,6‐dicarboxypyrazine‐2,5‐diyl)bis(pyridin‐1‐ium) dichloride dihydrate [C₁₆H₁₂N₄O₄²⁺·2Cl⁻·2H₂O, (Ib)] was obtained. The cation lies about an inversion centre. The pyridinium rings and carboxy groups are inclined to the planar pyrazine ring by 55.53 (9) and 19.8 (2)°, respectively. In the crystal structure, the molecules are involved in N—H...Cl, O—H...O_water and O_water—H...Cl hydrogen bonds, leading to the formation of chains propagating in the [010] direction. When (Ia) was recrystallized from dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), the DMSO disolvate 3,6‐bis(pyridin‐2‐yl)pyrazine‐2,5‐dicarboxylic acid dimethyl sulfoxide disolvate [C₁₆H₁₀N₄O₄·2C₂H₆OS, (Ic)] of (I) was obtained. Here, the molecule of (I) lies about an inversion centre and the pyridine rings are inclined to the planar pyrazine ring by only 23.59 (12)°. However, the carboxy groups are inclined to the pyrazine ring by 69.0 (3)°. In the crystal structure, the carboxy groups are linked to the DMSO molecules by O—H...O hydrogen bonds. In all three crystal structures, the presence of nonclassical hydrogen bonds gives rise to the formation of three‐dimensional supramolecular architectures.