Describing hydrogen-bonded structures; topology graphs, nodal symbols and connectivity tables, exemplified by five polymorphs of each of sulfathiazole and sulfapyridine

BACKGROUND: Structural systematics is the comparison of sets of chemically related crystal structures with the aim to establish and describe relevant similarities and relationships. An important topic in this context is the comparison of hydrogen-bonded structures (HBSs) and their representation by suitable descriptors. RESULTS: Three different description methods for HBSs are proposed, a graphical representation, a symbolic representation and connectivity tables. The most comprehensive description is provided by a modified graph of the underlying net topology of an HBS which contains information on the multiplicity of links, the directionality and chemical connectivity of hydrogen bonds and on symmetry relations. By contrast, the alternative symbolic representation is restricted to essential properties of an HBS, i.e. its dimensionality, topology type and selected connectivity characteristics of nodes. A comparison of their connectivity tables readily identifies differences and similarities between crystal structures with respect to the intermolecular interaction modes adopted by their functional groups. The application of these methods to the known polymorphs of sulfathiazole and sulfapyridine is demonstrated and it is shown that they enable the rationalisation of previously reported and intricate relationships. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed methods facilitate the comprehensive description of the most important relevant aspects of an HBS, including its chemical connectivity, net topology and symmetry characteristics, and they represent a new way to recognise similarities and relationships in organic crystal structures. [Figure: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13065-014-0076-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.