2‐(Benzoylsulfanyl)acetic acid and 2,5‐dioxopyrrolidin‐1‐yl 2‐(benzoylsulfanyl)acetate by powder X‐ray diffraction studies

The structures of the title compounds, C₉H₈O₃S, (I), and C₁₃H₁₁NO₅S, (II), were determined by X‐ray powder diffraction. Both were solved using the direct‐space parallel tempering algorithm and refined using the Rietveld method. In (I), the C—S—C bond angle is slightly smaller than normal, indicating more p character in the bonding orbitals of the S atom. The carboxylic acid group joins across an inversion centre to form a dimer. The crystal packing includes a weak C—H...O hydrogen bond between an aromatic C—H group and a carboxylic acid O atom to form a two‐dimensional network parallel to (10). The C—S—C bond angle in (II) is larger than its counterpart in (I), indicating that the S atom of (II) has less p character in its bonding orbitals than that of (I), according to Bent's rule. The crystal structure of (II) includes weak C—H...O hydrogen bonds between the H atoms of the methylene groups and carbonyl O atoms, forming a three‐dimensional network.