Hydrogen bonding networks and solid-state conversions in benzamidinium salts

Ten benzamidinium salts of carboxylic acids, amides, and sulfonamides have been crystallized from solution. Single-crystal X-ray analyses revealed various hydrogen bonding motifs which ate discussed in terms of supramolecular synthons and graph sets. Benzamidinium hydrogen maleate (5a) crystallizes as large,needles of up to 3 cm in length. Attempts to influence the crystal habit and size through a change of solvent and the presence of additives yielded a second polymorph (5b). The formation of the benzamidinium Salts by mechanochemical reaction Was also investigated. Grinding of benzamidine with nicotinic acid, salicylic acid, p-aminobenzoic acid, cyanuric acid, pimelic acid, saccharin, and sulfathiazole with mortar and pestle or using a ball-mill gave compounds identical to those obtained by crystallization from solution: Time-dependent X-ray powder patterns of a stoichiometric benzamidine cyanuric acid mixture suggested that the mechanochemical salt formation occurred via the amorphous state. Ball-milling of benzamidine with sulfamerazine generated amorphous benzamidinium sulfamerazinate that was stable toward crystallization for at least 2 weeks, when stored at 25% relative humidity.