2012 – Page 3 – CrystEngComm Blog

Archive for 2012

The diverse crystal forms of rifaximin

07 Sep 2012

Drugs, as with many molecular compounds, often exist in different crystal forms, and in these different forms they will exhibit different chemical and physical properties. Different solubilities and dissolution rates result in different absorption rates so the ability to control what form crystals take on, is of key importance throughout many stages of the pharmaceutical industry.

This HOT paper from Braga, Grepioni et al. looks at the crystal structures of four crystal forms of the synthetic antibiotic rifaximin. The study increases our understanding of how water molecules interact with rifaximin and/or amongst themselves in the crystal packing as well as providing information on the phase relationship of the hydration-dehydration process.

Supramolecular engineering via halogen bonding

06 Sep 2012

Applications of halogen bonding

In this HOT Highlight, Franck Meyer and Philippe Dubois discuss the emergence of halogen bonding over the last decade for crystal engineering of supramolecular complexes. Whilst hydrogen bonding has received a great deal of interest in this respect, very little work has focused on halogen bonding until now. The first applications to highly functional materials are presented. Other recent applications have also included solution phase recognition (catalysis, anion sensing and resolution) and macromolecular organizations (porous, polymeric and hybrid systems). Thus, the potential cooperation between weak
non-covalent bonds opens the door for new applications in materials science and synthetic chemistry.

‘New talent: Americas’ Collection now online

05 Sep 2012

The CrystEngComm Collection ‘New talent: Americas’

The CrystEngComm Collection ‘New talent: Americas’ as now been published.

The issue contains a collection of papers from young talented scientists working in the field of crystal engineering in the Americas, including:

Switching between halogen- and hydrogen-bonding in stoichiometric variations of a cocrystal of a phosphine oxide
Se Ye Oh, Christopher W. Nickels, Felipe Garcia, William Jones and Tomislav Frišcic
CrystEngComm, 2012, 14, 6110-6114

Controlling the local arrangements of p-stacked polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons through substituent effects
Steven E. Wheeler
CrystEngComm, 2012, 14, 6140-6145

Structural bolstering of metal sites as nodes in metal–organic frameworks
Sanjit Das, Daniel E. Johnston and Siddhartha Das
CrystEngComm, 2012, 14, 6136-6139

These are just a few of the great articles from the Americas included in the collection.

Read the full CrystEngComm Collection here

You can also check out the issues editorial by the Guest Editor, Christer Aakeröy

New talent: Americas

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This month’s CrystEngSelects

04 Sep 2012

Here is this month’s selection of Advance Articles and Accepted Manuscripts of interest to crystal engineers across RSC Journals

Articles are chosen from:
ChemComm,
Chemical Science,
CrystEngComm,
Dalton Transactions,
Journal of Materials Chemistry,
Nanoscale,
New Journal of Chemistry,
RSC Advances.

Click here to expand the full list

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Crystallography Centennial Celebrations

28 Aug 2012

Crystallographers everywhere have lots of reasons to celebrate in the years 2012-2014 for the centennial of Laue and the Braggs’ discoveries. Already this year there have been conferences held to highlight Laue’s contributions, such as the Laue Day held during the 20th Annual Meeting of the German Crystallographic Society. There will be many events in 2012-2013 to celebrate the work of the Braggs’, including the Bragg Symposium being held during the AsCA 12/CRYSTAL28 meeting in Adelaide, Australia in December 2012, and exhibitions at the European Crystallographic Meeting 2013 in Warwick, UK. The IUCr recently announced that 2014 has now been officially designated ‘International Year of Crystallography‘ by the United Nations, and so we can be sure the celebrations will continue through to the next IUCr Congress in Montréal and beyond!

Are you planning an exciting event to celebrate the wonderful discoveries of Laue and the Braggs’? Let us know in the comments box below!

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August Crystal Clear: A Crystal Hedgehog

24 Aug 2012

This hedgehog is actually a barite crystal, grown for 48 hours at pH 12.5 in hydrogen peroxide

This month’s crystal clear looks decidedly like a hedgehog!

In fact this is a BaSO₄ particle grown using H₂O₂ to control particle morphology. Published in Issue 16 of CrystEngComm the paper describes the growth of BaSO₄ crystals and proposes an interesting growth mechanism via selective adsorption of intermediates HO₂^–, O₂^2- and O₂, generated from the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide during the reaction.

The team from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences were looking to control the morphology of barite without affecting crystal purity. Barite is a material with a wide range of applications, the largest being in drilling fluids (used during oil and gas exploration) and also as a paint and plastic additive as well as application in medicine.

By changing the concentration of H₂O₂ and varying reaction pH the team were able to control crystal morphology. Download the article for free to find out how the team achieved the shape control and see their SEM images revealing the growth of the structures.

Hydrogen peroxide triggered morphological evolution of barium sulfate crystals under basic conditions
Xiao-Hui Zhang, Feng-Wen Yan, Cun-Yue Guo, Feng-Bo Li, Zhi-Jun Huang and Guo-Qing Yuan
CrystEngComm, 2012, 14, 5267-5273

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AsCA 12/CRYSTAL 28

23 Aug 2012

The Asian Crystallographic Association (AsCA), Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand (SCANZ) and the Bragg Symposium are holding the AsCA 12/CRYSTAL 28 meeting in Adelaide between the 2nd-6th December 2012 to celebrate the important anniversary of the Braggs’ discoveries in X-ray diffraction.

The meeting features a range of sessions including non-ambient and in-situ diffraction studies, chemical crystallography, and dynamic aspects of molecular and solid state crystals. Plenaries from Prof. Xiao-Ming Chen (Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou) and talks from Prof. Evan Gray (Griffith University, Australia) and Prof. Jagadese Vittal (University of Singapore) have been announced. The Bragg Symposium will take place following the conference on the 6th December at the Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide, with invited speakers like Prof. Sir Colin Humphreys (University of Cambridge, UK) and Mrs Patience Thomas (younger daughter of Sir Laurence Bragg).

Early bird registration will close on the 1st September 2012, and abstract submission closes on 31st August 2012. Register now and don’t miss out!

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Screw growth of crystals can copy nature’s spirals

20 Aug 2012

Screw growth of crystals can copy nature's spirals Nacre, a material found on the outer-coating of pearls, has incredible mechanical strength thanks to its arrangement of parallel laminars of inorganic layers separated by organic layers of macromolecules.

Scientists at Zhejiang University, China, have combined calcium phosphate and sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate in the presence of bovine serum albumin to create hybrid crystals with a nacre-like structure.

The hybrid crystals grew by a classical screw growth mechanism which is similar to the actual biological pathway for nacre formation. Further development of such biomimetic pathways will progress research into new, and perhaps stronger, organic-inorganic composites.

Download the manuscript which will be free to access for 4 weeks.

Lamellar organic–inorganic architecture via classical screw growth
Yan Quan, Halei Zhai, Zhisen Zhang, Xurong Xu and Ruikang Tang
CrystEngComm, 2012
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25805F, Paper

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Polymorphism in ionic liquids

17 Aug 2012

Ethambutol dibenzoate trimorphs

Cherukuvada and Nangia report the first example of polymorphism in ionic liquids. Three polymorphs of ethambutol dibenzoate were crystallized as ionic liquids and characterized. 15N NMR spectroscopy was used to identify the three polymorphs and their stability was investigated with the use of DSC and other experiments. The polymorphic transformations from forms 1 to 3 were also investigated by PXRD. Further work on crystallization and characterization will prove useful for new pharmaceutical formulations.

Top ten most accessed articles in June

08 Aug 2012

This month sees the following articles in CrystEngComm that are in the top ten most accessed:-

Self assembly of shape-controlled ZnS nanostructures with novel yellow light photoluminescence and excellent hydrophobic properties
Weina Jia , Boxiang Jia , Xiang Wu and Fengyu Qu
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25144B

Additive controlled crystallization
Rui-Qi Song and Helmut Cölfen
CrystEngComm, 2011,13, 1249-1276 DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00419G

A VO-Seeded Approach for the Growth of Star-Shaped VO2 and V2O5 Nanocrystals: Facile Synthesis, Structural Characterization, and Elucidation of Electronic Structure
Luisa Whittaker , Jesus M. Velazquez and Sarbajit Banerjee
CrystEngComm, 2011,13, 5328-5336 DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00832J

A Mixed-Valence Lanthanide Metal-Organic Framework Templated by 2,2′-Bipyridine Formed In Situ Reaction: Synthesis, Structure, and Luminescent Properties
Bowei Cai , Yanwei Ren , Huanfeng Jiang , De Zheng , Dabin Shi , Yuying Qian and Jun Chen
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5285-5288 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25160D

Single Crystalline LiMnPO4 Flowerlike Hierarchical Microstructures for Lithium-Ion Batteries
Ping Nie , Laifa Shen , Fang Zhang , Lin Chen , Haifu Deng and Xiaogang Zhang
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 4284-4288 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25094B

Synthesis of a 3D photochromic coordination polymer with interpenetrating arrangement: crystal engineering for electron transfer between donor and acceptor units
Yi Tan , Hengjun Chen , Jie Zhang , Shijun Liao , Jingcao Dai and Zhiyong Fu
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5137-5139 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25618E

Tuning Crystal-phase and Shape of Fe2O3 Nanoparticles for Catalytic Applications
Xiaoling Mou , Xuejiao Wei , Yong Li and Wenjie Shen
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5107-5120 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25109D

Five porphyrin-core-dependent metal-organic frameworks and framework-dependent fluorescent properties
Chao Zou , Ming-Hua Xie , Guo-Qiang Kong and Chuan-De Wu
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 4850-4856 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25357G

Discovery, Development, and Functionalization of Zr(IV)- Based Metal-Organic Frameworks
Min Kim and Seth M. Cohen
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 4096-4104 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06491J

An unusual (4,10)-connected 3-D metal–organic framework based on a non-planar tricarboxyl tecton and tetracadmium(II) secondary building units
Shao-Ming Fang , Min Chen , Xiao-Gang Yang , Cong Wang , Miao Du and Chun-Sen Liu
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5299-5304 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25194A

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to CrystEngComm? Then why not submit to us today or alternatively email us your suggestions.

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