Crystallization of an achiral cyclohexanone ethylene ketal in enantiomorphs and determination of the absolute structure

The achiral 4-methoxy-4-(p-methoxyphenyl)-cyclohexanone ethylene ketal (1) resolves spontaneously. The crystal structure is solved in chiral spatial group P2(1). Because compound 1 is composed of only light atoms (C, H, O) it is not possible to determine its absolute structure configuration. An efficient procedure for the absolute structure configuration determination of flexible molecules containing only light atoms is proposed, based on the combination of X-ray diffraction, solid-state VCD, and DFT calculations. © 2010 American Chemical Society.The authors are grateful to the CICYTFEDER Spainish project (MAT96-1073-C02, CTQ2009-13129- C02-02, and MAT2008-06522-C02) and the Government of Aragón and Madrid (Project MADRISOLAR, ref S-0505/PPQ/0225).Peer Reviewe