Triarylcarbinol derivatives barter intermolecular interactions to accommodate substituents and create polymorphs

The crystal structure of the sunset orange, malachite green, crystal violet, and 4-pyridine green carbinols double dagger are discussed in the conceptual framework of molecular tectonics. The hydroxyl group, the nitrogens and the triaryl system are involved in a subtle balance of interactions (hydrogen bond, 6-fold phenyl embrace, CH...pi interaction), that give rise to different polymorphs for the malachite green, crystal violet, and 4-pyridine green carbinols (in all, eight different polymorphs are structurally characterized). The analysis of the fingerprint plots derived from the Hirshfeld surfaces is used to individuate the packing motifs and to show how these motifs are transferred from one polymorph to another and between the different carbinols.