The stereochemistry of organosulfur compounds. XX. The x-ray crystal and molecular structures of two tetrathiaspiroalkanes

The X-ray crystal structures of 1,4,6,9-tetrathiaspiro4.4]nonane (4) and 1,5,7,11-tetrathiaspiro5.5]undecane (3) have been determined. Crystals of4 are tetragonal, space groupI4₁ cd, with eight molecules in a unit cell of dimensionsa=9.521 (2) andc=19.052(5) Å. Crystals of3 are orthorhombic,Pbca, with eight moleucles in a cell havinga=8.955(3),b=12.356(4), andc=18.425(4) Å. Compound4 was solved from the Patterson map and3 by use ofMultan, and they refined to finalR values of 6.4 and 2.5%, respectively. Compound4 consists of two 1,3-dithiolane rings connected via C(2), both of which appear to be somewhat disordered at room temperature. The uncorrected C-C distance is 1.476 Å and the average S-C distance is 1.786 Å. Compound3 consists of two 1,3-dithiane rings connected at C(2), both in chair conformations. In both compounds there appear to be electronic repulsions between S lone pairs and axial hydrogens of the opposite ring system. Analysis of endocyclic torsion angles in3 indicates that the ring conformations themselves are not significantly altered by the positional shift caused by the repulsion.