A Molecular Map of Resorcinol

Abstract

ALL those organic compounds which have until now yielded to quantitative X-ray analysis display some element of molecular symmetry in the crystal. The structure of the complete chemical molecule can then be built up from a fraction by symmetry operations, thus greatly simplifying the analysis. But some of the most interesting structures have a lower symmetry, and in these cases the molecule must be treated as a whole. This applies to resorcinol, space group C⁹_2v (P_na), a = 10·53, b = 9·53, c = 5·66 A., where the asymmetric unit consists of one chemical molecule. A quantitative analysis of this compound has now been carried out, and the preliminary results have been refined by a double Fourier synthesis which is shown in Fig. 1.