Crystal structure prediction of organic pigments: quinacridone as an example

The structures of the α, β and γ polymorphs of quinacridone (Pigment Violet 19) were predicted using Polymorph Predictor software in combination with X-ray powder diffraction patterns of limited quality. After generation and energy minimization of the possible structures, their powder patterns were compared with the experimental ones. On this basis, candidate structures for the polymorphs were chosen from the list of all structures. Rietveld refinement was used to validate the choice of structures. The predicted structure of the γ polymorph is in accordance with the experimental structure published previously. Three possible structures for the β polymorph are proposed on the basis of X-ray powder patterns comparison. It is shown that the α structure in the Cambridge Structural Database is likely to be in error, and a new α structure is proposed. The present work demonstrates a method to obtain crystal structures of industrially important pigments when only a low-quality X-ray powder diffraction pattern is available.