Crystal structures with a challenge: high-pressure crystallisation of ciprofloxacin sodium salts and their recovery to ambient pressure

Two novel sodium salts of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin were crystallised at pressures of 0.25 and 0.6 GPa and subsequently recovered to ambient pressure. The structures are the first reported examples of ciprofloxacin chelating a Group IA monovalent cation. Ambient-pressure crystallisation of the same solution used for high-pressure experiments, yielded crystals of the known hexahydrate. In a parallel study, the previously unknown structure of anhydrous ciprofloxacin was determined from powder diffraction data. The structures are described and compared using the XPac method.