Adiponitrile at 100 K

Adiponitrile, C₆H₈N₂, is a key intermediate in the synthesis of the polyamide Nylon 66 and is produced industrially on a large scale. We have determined the crystal and molecular structure of adiponitrile by single‐crystal X‐ray analysis at 100 K, a suitable crystal (m.p. 275 K) having been grown from the melt at low temperature. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P 2₁/c with Z = 2. In the crystal structure, the molecule adopts an exact C_i‐symmetric gauche –anti –gauche conformation of the C—C—C—C skeleton about an inversion centre. The molecules are densely packed, with short intermolecular contacts between the α‐H and nitrile N atoms.