In their recent CrystEngComm Hot Article, Xutang Tao and colleagues report the successful growth of bulk α-BaTe-Mo2O9 polar single crystals using a top-seeded solution growth method. The search for new polar materials is of current interest owing to their potentially important functional properties including piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, ferroelectricity and secondharmonic generation activity.Indeed these large crystals offer a promising candidate for optical devices such as light modulators, colour filters, wave plates and
optical axis gratings. Find out more about this polar polymorph by reading the article – free to access until 24 November 2011.
Bulk crystal growth and characterization of a new polar polymorph of BaTeMo2O9: α-BaTeMo2O9
Junjie Zhang, Zhonghan Zhang, Youxuan Sun, Chengqian Zhang and Xutang Tao
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05922J
In this HOT Article, two new phenyl-bridged pseudopeptidic ligands have been prepared and structurally characterised. The nature of the ligands’ substituents play an important role in the nature of the solid state structure yielding either hydrogen bonded linked sheets of molecules or infinite hydrogen bonded networks. To investigate this further, these ligands were reacted with a range of zinc(II) salts with the aim of synthesising coordination polymers and networks; the role of anions in determining the final structure was explored.
This HOT Article, describes the structural analysis of four new compounds and of known structures of related compounds revealing preferred
In this HOT article, Chinese researchers report the synthesis and properties of spherical assemblies of NaYF4 nanocrystals via a facile solution-based method. Their novelty lies in the unique structural geometry of the NaYF4 assemblies attached together along one specific crystalline orientation. The impact of organic additives such as citric acid and polyvinylpyrrolidone on the crystal growth was investigated in detail and a possible formation mechanism is also proposed. This interesting hierarchical structure not only offers a high surface area and easy modification surface, but also provides a new efficient host for doping various lanthanide ions to give strong down- or up-conversion emissions. It is anticipated that these unique assembled NaYF4 nanostructures will serve as biolabels in various biomedical applications.
In this HOT article, Chinese researchers have demonstrated for the first time that ternary cation-alloyed PbSnS nanocrystals could be synthesized via a facile solution-based routine. The mean diameters of the as-prepared nanocrystals ranged from 6–15 nm. Several interesting variations on the crystal structure and band gap energy were indicated. The results could potentially have a high impact on IV-VI quantum dots based optoelectronic applications in the future.
In this CrystEngComm Hot article William Ducker from the University of Melbourne studies the mechanism for hydrothermal growth of ZnO, in collaboration with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
John D. Wallis and colleagues at Nottingham Trent University, the University of Southampton, Brock University and the University of Fribourg look at the (1,5) interactions between aldehyde groups and hydroxyl or methoxy groups in this CrystEngComm Hot article.
In this CrystEngComm Hot article Zhimao Yang and co-workers from Xi’an Jiaotong University make copper oxide nanostructures with copper nanoparticles grown on the {111} facets via a one-pot method.