Abstract
Understanding the nucleation pathway and achieving regulation to produce the desired crystals are mutually beneficial. The authors previously proposed a nucleation pathway of conformational polymorphs in which solvation and solute self-assembly could affect the result of the conformational rearrangement and further nucleation outcomes. Based on this, herein α,ω-alkanedi-carb-oxy-lic acids (DAn, where n represents the number of carbon atoms in the molecule, n = 2-6, 8-11) were designed as homologous additives to interfere with the self-assembly of pimelic acid (DA7) to further induce the form II compound, which differs from form I only in conformation. Interestingly, longer-chain additives (DA6-11) have a stronger form II-inducing ability than short-chain ones (DA2-4). In addition, an apparent gradient of the degree of interference with solute self-assembly, consistent with form II-inducing ability, was detected by infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The calculated molecular electrostatic potential charges also clearly indicate that additive-solute electrostatic interactions gradually increase with increasing carbon chain length of the additives, reaching a maximum value with DA6-11. This novel use of additives demonstrates a direct link between solute aggregation and conformational polymorph nucleation.