2-Hydroxyisophthalic acid: hydrogen-bonding patterns in the monohydrate and the tetraphenylphosphonium salt. An instance of dramatic acidity enhancement by symmetric, internally hydrogen-bonded anion stabilization.

The monohydrate of the title phenolic diacid (C8H6O5.H2O, 2-hydroxybenzene-1,3-dioic acid or 3-carboxysalicylic acid) adopts a planar conformation, with the phenol hydrogen internally hydrogen-bonded to the carbonyl of one highly ordered carboxyl, which, in turn, donates a hydrogen bond to the oxygen of water. The second carboxyl is disordered and hydrogen-bonded both to water and to the disordered carboxyl of a centrosymmetrically related neighbor in a static disorder arrangement extending over two full asymmetric units. The water accepts either one or two hydrogen bonds and donates a long bifurcated hydrogen bond shared equally by O atoms of the phenol and the disordered carboxyl. The hydrogen bonding includes no standard carboxyl pairing and is entirely two-dimensional. The resulting planar ribbons stack translationally at a distance of 3.413 (8) A, in an offset arrangement having non-translational interplanar distances of 0.821 (5) and 2.592 (6) A. This structure is compared with two previously reported for this compound. The title compound forms a monoanion, whose tetraphenylphosphonium salt is described (C32H25O5P, tetraphenylphosphonium 2,6-dicarboxyphenolate, tetraphenylphosphonium 2-oxidoisophthalic acid or tetraphenylphosphonium 3-carboxysalicylate). The phenol oxygen is the site of formal negative charge on the anion, which is stabilized in a planar arrangement by symmetrical hydrogen bonds from both ortho-carboxyl groups. The energetics of this arrangement, the phenol and carboxyl acidities, and factors affecting those acidities and providing anion stabilization are discussed.