Cobaloximes as building blocks in halogen-bonded cocrystals

Abstract

In this work, we explore the halogen-bonded cocrystallization potential of cobaloxime complexes in the synthesis of cocrystals with perhalogenated benzenes. We demonstrate a strategy for synthesizing halogen-bonded metal-organic cocrystals by utilizing cobaloximes whose pendant bromide group and oxime oxygen enable halogen bonding. By combining three well-known halogen bond donor molecules differing in binding geometry and composition with three cobaloxime units, we obtained a total of four previously unreported cocrystals. Single crystal X-ray diffraction experiments showed that the majority of obtained cocrystals exhibited the formation of the targeted IO and IBr motives. These results illustrate the potential of cobaloximes as halogen bond acceptors and indicate that this type of halogen bond acceptors may offer a novel route to metal-organic halogen-bonded cocrystals.