Weather and climate influence solid state reactions in previously unrealised ways. So say scientists who have found a mysterious liquid phase at the interface between solids when investigating mechanochemical synthesis.
Source: Royal Society of Chemistry Co-grinding a dry mixture of α-glycine and β-malonic acid is known to give a stoichiometric salt, glycinium semi-malonate.
Mechanochemical reactions are performed by grinding two solid reactants together without a solvent. They are often touted as a green alternative to traditional synthesis, and occur via complex pathways quite different to reactions in solution. Humans have used mechanochemistry since time immemorial: to create fire from the friction between two pieces of wood, in the process of ball milling since the industrial revolution, and to prepare powders for pharmaceuticals and rocket propellants.
The full article can be read in Chemistry World.
The original article can be read below and is open access
Inadvertent liquid assisted grinding: a key to “dry” organic mechano-co-crystallisation?
I A Tumanov et al,
CrystEngComm, 2017, 19, 2830
DOI: 10.1039/c7ce00517b
