A further X-ray investigation of long chain compounds (n-hydrocarbon)

Abstract In a previous paper the writer has outlined the crystal structure of a number of long-chain compounds. One of the main results of this work was to show that the crystal molecules (chains) in all these substances can be represented as rods of definite cross section, the crystals being built up of bundles of these rods packed close together. A closer examination of the X-ray photographs of stearic acid gave the clue to the chain structure, and led to a general formula for the structure factor. It was then announced that a more detailed investigation of stearic acid was to follow. The choice of stearic acid was dictated entirely by practical reasons, no other well developed crystals of other similar substances being available at that time. But as it was obviously more desirable to study first the prototype of the long chain compounds, namely, the normal hydrocarbon, efforts were first made to find single crystals of these substances. The search was unexpectedly successful, and the present paper describes an attempt to interpret the results of the X-ray examination of a single crystal of the hydrocarbon C29H60.