Electronic and Crystal Packing Effects in Terms of Static and Kinetic Force Field Features: Picolinic Acid N-Oxide and Methimazole

Abstract

Herein, we experimentally obtained and studied the inner-crystal scalar potential fields and the associated vector force fields of static and kinetic nature in picolinic acid N-oxide (PANO) and methimazole. The “through-bond” and “through-space” electronic effects were defined and distinguished via the vector fields and concurred with the penetration of the electron contributor’s electrostatic and kinetic force field pseudoatoms (φes- and φk-basins) into the occupier’s chemical atom (ρ-basin). A special focus was given to the dipolar N+–O– bond as well as to the thioamide N–C═S and carboxylic O═C–OH fragments. An unusual way of interatomic charge transfer was revealed between two nonbonded hydrogen atoms [COO−]H···H[−C] in the PANO crystal. The experimental electric and kinetic force fields in the molecular crystals were compared to the theoretical ones for the free molecules and hydrogen-bonded associates, which helped figure out the natural consequences of the crystal packing effect. As expected, the appearance of neighboring attractors in a dense crystal packing requires zero-flux surfaces (ZFSs) emerging in the vector fields and the compression of the outer force field pseudoatoms of a molecule. We proposed to consider a ZFS in the kinetic force field to be a turning surface for electrons in the sense that an electron passed through the boundary is immediately affected by the redirected force attributed to another attractor. The strengthening and noticeable increase observed in the covalency of the intramolecular hydrogen bond O–H···O in the PANO crystal is a direct consequence of such compression of the hydrogen atom and pseudoatoms by the inner-crystal environment. The Pauli and fermionic scalar and vector fields were applied to locate electron lone pairs and describe their involvement in noncovalent interactions within the donor–acceptor mechanism.