Competing intermolecular interactions in some 'bridge-flipped' isomeric phenylhydrazones

To examine the roles of competing intermolecular interactions in differentiating the molecular packing arrangements of some isomeric phenylhydrazones from each other, the crystal structures of five nitrile-halogen substituted phenylhydrazones and two nitro-halogen substituted phenylhydrazones have been determined and are described here: (E)-4-cyanobenzaldehyde 4-chlorophenylhydrazone, C(14)H(10)ClN(3), (Ia); (E)-4-cyanobenzaldehyde 4-bromophenylhydrazone, C(14)H(10)BrN(3), (Ib); (E)-4-cyanobenzaldehyde 4-iodophenylhydrazone, C(14)H(10)IN(3), (Ic); (E)-4-bromobenzaldehyde 4-cyanophenylhydrazone, C(14)H(10)BrN(3), (IIb); (E)-4-iodobenzaldehyde 4-cyanophenylhydrazone, C(14)H(10)IN(3), (IIc); (E)-4-chlorobenzaldehyde 4-nitrophenylhydrazone, C(13)H(10)ClN(3)O(2), (III); and (E)-4-nitrobenzaldehyde 4-chlorophenylhydrazone, C(13)H(10)ClN(3)O(2), (IV). Both (Ia) and (Ib) are disordered (less than 7% of the molecules have the minor orientation in each structure). Pairs (Ia)/(Ib) and (IIb)/(IIc), related by a halogen exchange, are isomorphous, but none of the 'bridge-flipped' isomeric pairs, viz. (Ib)/(IIb), (Ic)/(IIc) or (III)/(IV), is isomorphous. In the nitrile-halogen structures (Ia)-(Ic) and (IIb)-(IIc), only the bridge N-H group and not the bridge C-H group acts as a hydrogen-bond donor to the nitrile group, but in the nitro-halogen structures (III) (with Z' = 2) and (IV), both the bridge N-H group and the bridge C-H group interact with the nitro group as hydrogen-bond donors, albeit via different motifs. The occurrence here of the bridge C-H contact with a hydrogen-bond acceptor suggests the possibility that other pairs of `bridge-flipped' isomeric phenylhydrazones may prove to be isomorphous, regardless of the change from isomer to isomer in the position of the N-H group within the bridge.