CrystEngComm Blog

We are delighted to announce that Christian Doonan (University of Adelaide, Australia) and C. Malla Reddy (Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India) have been appointed as Co-Editors-in-Chief of CrystEngComm. They succeed Pierangelo Metrangolo who served as the journal’s Chair for six years. We would like to thank Pierangelo for his unwavering support of the journal during his term and look forward to working with Christan and Malla over the years ahead.

This joint appointment, the first in the journal’s history, will enable us to draw upon the expertise and networks of two world-leading researchers in the fields of crystal engineering and functional materials.

Under their leadership, the journal will seek to expand into new and exciting areas of research. CrystEngComm will highlight key advances in the fields of crystal engineering and crystal growth and provide a vital forum for the development of innovating crystalline materials science.

Having both served the journal as Associate Editors for many years, their knowledge of the journal will be used to build upon its history and strengthen its position and scope over the coming years.

Christian and Malla share their views on the current research landscape and their enthusiasm to work together to lead the journal into new and exciting areas:

“Crystal Engineering concepts are ubiquitous in the chemical sciences and underpin breakthroughs in a broad range of research areas. Over many years CrystEngComm has developed an international reputation for the publication of innovative scientific research and maintaining exceptional standards of scientific rigor. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Professor Reddy, and an exceptionally dedicated and accomplished editorial  team, to ensure that CrystEngComm is the primary destination for high-impact science focussed on the design and understanding of crystalline materials and to identify and develop new areas of growth for the journal.” Christian Doonan, January 2024

“Crystal Engineering is now a mature field, providing exciting opportunities for the design of novel materials using sustainable routes, thanks to the progress made over last three to four decades. With the ever-expanding database of crystal structures and growing influence of computational tools supported by artificial intelligence and machine learning, we are here to witness unprecedented levels of predictive power to find novel materials. It is an absolute delight for me to join Professor Doonan, the board members and editorial team of the journal. Utilising CrystEngComm’s strong roots in the community, we will together steer its growth to reach new heights.” C. Malla Reddy, January 2024

C. Malla Reddy is the first researcher based in India to serve as an Editor-in-Chief of an RSC journal, and we are looking forward to working with Malla to continue to support all researchers, in India and beyond, to publish their best science.

Christian Doonan’s expertise and international collaborations complement those of Malla and, taken together, will enable us to understand and respond to the needs of our global readership and authorship, encouraging submissions from leaders in the field.

Take a look at recent work from both Christian and Malla:

A high Z′ structure of an organic salt with unusually high phase stability, nanoindentation, and mechano and vapo-fluorochromism Ishtiyaq Ahmad, Arshid A. Ganie, Shamim Ahmad, Aadil A. Ahangar, C. Malla Reddy and Aijaz A. Dar   CrystEngComm, 2023,25, 3164-3170
Understanding the structural landscape of Mn-based MOFs formed with hinged pyrazole carboxylate linkers Josephine F. Smernik, Pol Gimeno-Fonquernie, Jorge Albalad, Tyla S. Jones, Rosemary J. Young, Neil R. Champness, Christian J. Doonan, Jack D. Evans and Christopher J. Sumby   CrystEngComm, 2023,25, 6539-6548

We are delighted to introduce Professor Changquan Calvin Sun (University of Minnesota, USA) and Professor Bin Zhao (Nankai University, China) as the latest members of the CrystEngComm Editorial Board!

Changquan Calvin Sun is Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Minnesota, USA, from which he received his PhD in Pharmaceutics in 2000. After spending 8 years in the pharmaceutical industry, he joined the Department of Pharmaceutics as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Full Professor in 2017. Professor Sun’s research focuses on efficient formulation design of high-quality tablet products through the appropriate application of materials science and engineering principles. Two main areas of his current research are crystal and particle engineering for superior pharmaceutical properties and, fundamental understanding of pharmaceutical processes, including powder compaction. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Professor Sun received the 2019 Ralph Shangraw Memorial Award from the International Pharmaceutical Excipient Council (IPEC) and the 2022 David J. W. Grant Distinguished Scholar Award in Basic Pharmaceutics from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE). Professor Sun has given his insight and thoughts on the future of the field of crystal engineering with regard to pharmaceutical research and the role of CrystEngComm: “Crystal engineering has been proven to be effective for modifying solid-state properties of molecules. This is attractive for overcoming problems in several fields, including pharmaceutical development. A major opportunity for advancing crystal engineering research is the development of reliable computational tools that can guide efficient design and preparation of new crystals with desired properties. To achieve this goal, quantitative crystal structure – properties relationship needs to be further developed. In this context, CrystEngComm plays a central role in terms of developing and defining a highly collaborative and prolific crystal engineering community through offering a platform for disseminating cutting edge research that meets a high, quality standard.”

Bin Zhao is a Distinguished Professor at Nankai University. He received his PhD degree from Nankai University in 2004 and has worked as a Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry since 2009. His current research interests focus on the construction of complicated metal clusters and structure, luminescence and catalysis of cluster-based coordination polymers, as well as their applications in the fields of energy, environment and health, such as the conversion and utilization of CO2, water splitting, luminescent probes etc. The related research won the support of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund. Bin Zhao has published over 180 research papers and has won various awards including the National Hundred Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (2006), the Chinese Chemical Society Prize for Young Scientists (2006), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (2007) and the Youth Science and Technology Innovation Leader (2017). Professor Zhao has also given his insight and thoughts on the role of CrystEngComm and the importance of crystal engineering in materials science research: “In the field of chemistry and materials science, crystal engineering is an indispensable subject that helps us explore the structures of substances, the design of novel crystalline materials, and the relation amongst structure and properties. Nowadays, crystalline materials such as MOFs are under widespread investigation for their outstanding performance in the areas of catalysis, gas adsorption, chemical sensing and so on. As a result crystal engineering will be under prosperous development. CrystEngComm is a well-known specialized journal about designing and understanding of solid-state and crystalline materials. Huge amounts of impressive crystalline structures with interesting property and design strategies have been published in this journal, which plays a critical role in the crystal engineering community and will get increasing attention in the future.”

Browse a selection of recent articles by Professor Zhao and Professor Sun

The different magnetic relaxation behaviors in [Fe(CN)6]3− or [Co(CN)6]3− bridged 3d–4f heterometallic compounds Ruirui Wang, Haili Wang, Juan Wang, Feifei Bai, Yue Ma, Licun Li, Qinglun Wang, Bin Zhao and Peng Cheng CrystEngComm, 2020, 22, 2998-3004

Cocrystal engineering of pharmaceutical solids: therapeutic potential and challenges Si Nga Wong, Yu Chee Sonia Chen, Bianfei Xuan, Changquan Calvin Sun and Shing Fung Chow CrystEngComm, 2021, 23, 7005-7038

Enhancing the energy barrier of dysprosium(III) single-molecule magnets by tuning the magnetic interactions through different N-oxide bridging ligands Juan Wang, Mingfang Yang, Juan Sun, Hui Li, Jinjin Liu, Qinglun Wang, Licun Li, Yue Ma, Bin Zhao and Peng Cheng CrystEngComm, 2019, 21, 6219-6225

Profoundly improved photostability of dimetronidazole by cocrystallization Xinghui Hao, Jinhui Li, Chenguang Wang, Xinghua Zhao, Xin He and Changquan Calvin Sun CrystEngComm, 2022, 24, 6165-6171

Please submit your primary research to CrystEngComm – see our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Welcoming Professor Kwangyeol Lee to the CrystEngComm Editorial Board

We are delighted to welcome Professor Kwangyeol Lee (Korea University, Korea) as an Associate Editor for CrystEngComm!

Kwangyeol Lee is Professor of Chemistry at Korea University. He graduated from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in 1992 and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1997 from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign under the supervision of Professor John R. Shapley. After fulfilling his military obligation of Korea, he joined Korea University in 2003 as an Assistant Professor. During his independent research career Professor Lee has studied nanocrystal growth, phase conversions in nanoscale as well as nanoparticle applications. He has contributed over 180 papers in the fields of organometallic chemistry and nanochemistry. His current research efforts are focused on the development of synthetic methodologies for nanoscale materials and the development of nanotechnologies to support the environment by creating sustainable energy. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Lectureship Award (2007, The Chemical Society of Japan), Wiley-KCS Young Scholar Award (2009, The Korean Chemical Society) and the Excellent Research Award (2019, Inorganic Chemistry Division of The Korean Chemical Society).

Kwangyeol has given his insight and thoughts on the future of the field of crystal engineering and materials chemistry and the role of CrystEngComm:

“The field of crystal engineering is a natural match with nascent machine learning technology. The interlocking of these two would lead to hitherto unobserved speed of material discovery, which would be a boon to people with applications in mind.”

“The salient challenge to synthetic chemists in the field of crystal engineering would be the control of defects in the crystal. How much and where to locate defects and vacancies in a given crystal might lead to excellent material performances.”     

“CrystEngComm could be the leading venue for new idea exchange as unprecedented properties can come only from unprecedented materials that are not free of the fundamentals of crystal growth.”

Editor’s Choice: Kwangyeol’s favourite CrystEngComm articles

Below are two publications that Kwangyeol has chosen as his favourite CrystEngComm articles from the themed issue, Crystal engineering of composite materials, which he guest edited for the journal in 2016.  Both articles are free to access for a limited time.

“These works attracted considerable interest from the scientists in the fields of photovoltaics and electrolytic water splitting, respectively. I am greatly fond of these two articles.”

Crystal growth engineering for high efficiency perovskite solar cells
Nam-Gyu Park
CrystEngComm, 2016, 18, 5977-5985
https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CE00813E

Shape effects of nickel phosphide nanocrystals on hydrogen evolution reaction
Bora Seo, Du San Baek, Young Jin Sa and Sang Hoon Joo
CrystEngComm, 2016, 18, 6083-6089
https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CE00985A

Please submit your primary research to CrystEngComm – see our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

We are delighted to welcome Susan Reutzel-Edens to the CrystEngComm team as an Editorial Board member

Susan Reutzel-Edens is a senior research advisor in Small Molecule Design & Development at Eli Lilly and Company and adjunct professor at Purdue University. After earning her PhD at the University of Minnesota (1991) under the direction of the late Professor Margaret C. Etter, she joined Eli Lilly, where she founded the solid form design program and for two decades led a team of cross-functional scientists charged with finding commercially-viable crystalline forms for small-molecule drug products. She has contributed to the development of more than 150 compounds, is a named inventor on 12 US patents, and has published over 50 papers and book chapters on key aspects of solid form development.

Her research interests include crystal polymorphism, materials design and engineering, crystal nucleation and growth, structure-property relationships, crystal structure prediction and digital design of drug products. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2018, and currently serves on the CrystEngComm Editorial Board, as a topic editor for Crystal Growth and Design, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre.

Browse a slection of Susan’s latest work:

Accuracy and reproducibility in crystal structure prediction: the curious case of ROY
Jonas Nyman, Lian Yu and Susan M. Reutzel-Edens
CrystEngComm, 2019, 21, 2080-2088
DOI: 10.1039/C8CE01902A, Paper

A random forest model for predicting crystal packing of olanzapine solvates
Rajni M. Bhardwaj, Susan M. Reutzel-Edens, Blair F. Johnston and Alastair J. Florence
CrystEngComm, 2018, 20, 3947-3950
DOI: 10.1039/C8CE00261D, Communication

Can computed crystal energy landscapes help understand pharmaceutical solids?
Sarah L. Price, Doris E. Braun and Susan M. Reutzel-Edens
Chem. Commun., 2016, 52, 7065-7077
DOI: 10.1039/C6CC00721J, Feature Article

Facts and fictions about polymorphism
Aurora J. Cruz-Cabeza, Susan M. Reutzel-Edens and Joel Bernstein
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2015, 44, 8619-8635
DOI: 10.1039/C5CS00227C, Review Article

Submit your work to CrystEngComm – Check our website for handy tips and guidelines or find out more about the benefits of publishing with the Royal Society of Chemistry.

We are delighted to introduce Professors Susan Bourne and Dongfeng Xue as the newest members of our Editorial Board and are very happy to be able to welcome them to the team, and look forward to working closely with them on shaping the future of CrystEngComm!

Professor Dongfeng Xue

Dongfeng Xue is a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry. He received his PhD in inorganic chemistry at CIAC in 1998. Following postdoctoral studies at the Universität Osnabrück, University of Ottawa and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, he was promoted to Professor in 2001 at Dalian University of Technology, China. In 2011, he returned to CIAC to assume his professorship in inorganic chemistry. His research interests focus on multiscale crystallization of inorganic matter for energy and optical applications.

As a CrystEngComm Associate Editor, Professor Xue will be handling submissions in the areas of crystal growth, nanomaterials, polymorphism and crystal engineering techniques.

Professor Susan Bourne

Susan Bourne is the Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cape Town. Her PhD, obtained at the University of Cape Town, was a study of organic inclusion compounds undertaken under the supervision of Professor Luigi Nassimbeni. Her research interests include the application of physicochemical methods to inclusion compounds and crystal engineering of metal-organic materials, all with the aim of correlating solid-state structure with physical properties and reactivity. She has published over 120 papers and has supervised 20 postgraduate students. She is the chair of the Structural Chemistry Commission of the International Union of Crystallography, and is a Fellow of the University of Cape Town.

Browse a selection of recent work published by Dongfeng and Susan below:

Design and synthesis of a nonlinear optical material BaAl₄S₇ with a wide band gap inspired from SrB₄O₇
Dajiang Mei, Jianqiao Jiang, Fei Liang, Shiyan Zhang, Yuandong Wu, Congting Sun, Dongfeng Xue and Zheshuai Lin
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018, 6, 2684-2689

The synergy effect of rare earth cations on local structure and PL emission in a Ce³⁺:REPO₄ (RE = La, Gd, Lu, Y) system
Congting Sun and Dongfeng Xue
Dalton Trans., 2017, 46, 7888-7896

Crystallization of transition metal oxides within 12 seconds
Kunfeng Chen and Dongfeng Xue
CrystEngComm, 2017, 19, 1230-1238

Supramolecular metallogels constructed from carboxylate gelators
Savannah C. Zacharias, Gaëlle Ramon and Susan A. Bourne
Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 4505-4519

Unravelling chromism in metal–organic frameworks
Gift Mehlana and Susan A. Bourne
CrystEngComm, 2017, 19, 4238-4259

Crystallisation temperature control of stoichiometry and selectivity in host–guest compounds
Nicole M. Sykes, Hong Su, Edwin Weber, Susan A. Bourne and Luigi R. Nassimbeni
CrystEngComm, 2017, 19, 5892-5896

*Access to these articles is free until 31/08/2018 through a registered RSC account.

Submit your research or reviews to CrystEngComm – see our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Welcome to CrystEngComm’s newest Editorial board member – Professor Tong-Bu Lu. Professor Lu works at the Institute for New Energy Materials and Low Carbon Technologies, based at the Tianjin University of Technology, China.

His research interests include the recognition and activation of molecules and ions by the macrocyclic compounds; the constructions of porous metal-organic frameworks, and investigation of their properties for gases storages and separation, ions exchange and chiral separation and pharmaceutical polymorphs and cocrystals. He has been recognised as a distinguished Professor in Guangdong Province, China

Please see below a selection of recent articles published by Professor Lu for CrystEngComm:

Interpenetrating metal–organic frameworks
Yun-Nan Gong, Di-Chang Zhong and Tong-Bu Lu
CrystEngComm, 2016, 18, 2596-2606
DOI: 10.1039/C6CE00371K, Highlight

Synthesis and structures of dinuclear cryptates with Zn(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II): tuning the cascade binding mode with metal ions
Feng Yan, Xiao-Mei Zhuang and Tong-Bu Lu
CrystEngComm, 2015, 17, 5832-5840
DOI: 10.1039/C5CE00817D, Paper

Thermodynamics and preliminary pharmaceutical characterization of a melatonin–pimelic acid cocrystal prepared by a melt crystallization method
Yan Yan, Jia-Mei Chen and Tong-Bu Lu
CrystEngComm, 2015, 17, 612-620
DOI: 10.1039/C4CE01921K, Paper