Insights into solid–liquid equilibrium behavior of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone

2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone is a key intermediate in the preparation of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride, a broad-spectrum quinolone antibacterial drug. Wherein, crystallization and solid–liquid equilibrium thermodynamics play an irreplaceable role in the separation and purification of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone. Therefore, in this work, the solubility of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone was measured by dynamic method in eight different solvents and range from 273.15 K to 288.15 K. The results showed that the solubility of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone increased with increasing temperature. Further analysis showed that the solubility of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone increased with increasing carbon chain length in ester solvents. Single crystals of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone were successfully prepared and the result reveals that the Cl⋯H, O⋯H, and F⋯H interactions dominated the packing and long-range order of the crystals. Then, different thermodynamic models were employed to describe the thermodynamic behavior of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone. The calculated ARD% and RMSD values show that the correlation results are in good agreement with the experimental data, and the Van’t Hoff equation has the best regression performance. Finally, it is interesting to find that the contribution of entropy and enthalpy change to dissolution of 2′,4′-dichloro-5′-fluoroacetophenone tends to be equal with increasing temperature.