Growth characteristic, guest distribution, guest ordering and the stability of urea inclusion compounds with 1-decene, n-decane and mixture of 1-decene and n-decane

•We monitor the growth characteristics of UICs with different guests.•Urea prefers to include 1-alkene than n-alkane with the same number of carbons.•1-D packing of guests within tunnels is governed by interactions of functional groups.•We have studied the stability of UICs with 1-decene and UICs with n-decane.

Growth characteristics of urea inclusion compounds with 1-decene, n-decane and mixture of 1-decene and n-decane (relative mass ratio = 1:1) were studied by CCD high-speed Camera. The present studies show that the speed of UICs growth in tunnel direction is faster than in vertical direction and the length of UICs with 1-decene is shorter than UICs with n-decane, and the length of UICs with mixture is between them due to the influence of the vinyl in 1-decene. The value of R = I(CH2)/I(CH3) and M = I(CHCH2)/I(CH3) in FTIR spectrum of UICs increasing with growth time demonstrates that urea prefers to include n-decane than 1-decene. 13C CP/MAS NMR studies of UICs indicate that the arrangement of 1-decene in UICs is CH3⋯CH3 and CHCH2⋯CH2CH. The arrangement of 1-decene in UICs leads to short chain of UICs with 1-decene in tunnel direction. The 13C CP/MAS NMR spectra of UICs with MIX reveal that there are three different types of arrangement: CH3⋯CH3, CHCH2⋯CH3 and CHCH2⋯CH2CH. The methods of FTIR and DSC were used to test the stability of UICs with different guests. The result shows that UICs with n-decane are stable than UICs with 1-decene. And the stability of UICs with mixture is in the middle.