A new inclusion complex thiourea with tetrabutylammonium salicylate and water, 4(C4H9)4N+C7H5O3 ?4(NH2)2CS?2H2O, has been prepared and characterized by X-ray crystallo- graphy. Crystal data: MoKα radiation, triclinic, space group P1 with a = 13.505(5), b = 13.645(5), c = 30.720(10) ?, α = 92.872(7), β = 92.329(7), γ = 92.538(7)°, V = 5643.0(3) ?3, C96H184N12O14S4, Mr = 1858.79, Z = 2, Dc = 1.094 g/cm3, μ = 0.143 mm-1, F(000) = 2040, R = 0.0694 and wR = 0.1282 for 4303 observed reflections with I > 2σ(I). There are three different layer type host-lattices in the crystal structure of the title compound. All of them are formed by [(NH2)2CS·(C7H5O3 )]4 tetramers, but water molecules are located between tetramers and link them by hydrogen bonds to generate ribbons at c = 0 and 1/2, and isolated tetramers are arranged side by side at c = 1/4. The tetrabutylammonium cations are sandwiched between puckered layers.
The chemistry of inclusion compounds has a long history and is nowadays a subject of wide-ranging and intense study. With the awarding of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Donald J. Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn and Charles J. Pedersen for their fundamental work on 'host-guest' or 'supramolecular' systems, inclusion chemistry has come to the fore front in contemporary researches. Increasing varieties of novel inclusion compounds and new host molecules have been synthesized recently. The term 'crystal engineering' was coined by Schmidt to describe the rational design and control of molecular packing arrangements in the solid state, and the structural study of clathrates has contributed
