Crystal Structure of Melaminium Orthophosphate from High‐Resolution Synchrotron Powder‐Diffraction Data

Abstract

Abstract The crystal structure of melaminium orthophosphate (MP) has been determined from high‐resolution synchrotron powder‐diffraction data. The crystal packing consists of melaminium layers and pairs of orthophosphate chains connected by H‐bonds almost perpendicular to the layers. The distance between melaminium layers is 3.62 Å. Neighboring melaminium molecules do not lie in the same plane, but in two parallel planes at close distance (0.79 Å), and are shifted with respect to each other. The orthophosphate chains are connected by both intra‐chain and inter‐chain H‐bonds. The melamine is singly protonated at an endocyclic N‐atom. The powder‐diffraction data were corroborated by solid‐state NMR experiments.