Mechanistic study for heterogeneous product growth in topochemical single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation

Abstract Kinetic evaluation for the solid-state reaction of 1,4-dithiin/anthracene mixed single crystal proved the mechanism of the anisotropic heterogeneous propagation during the single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation. The number of hydrogen bonds in the reactive molecule is directly correlated with the activation energy for the reaction––the ‘chain’ character of solid-state propagation being triggered by the breaking of the C–H⋯O hydrogen bonds.