CrystEngComm Blog

Hot Communication just published in CrystEngComm: Polarity-dependent homo-epitaxy on (0001)-Zn and (0001)-O surfaces of cleaved ZnO microwires was investigated by in situ growth in ESEM and DFT simulations.

Read this article for free until the 6th October!

Click here to access: In situ growth and density-functional-theory study of polarity-dependent homo-epitaxial ZnO microwires
Rui Zhu, Qing Zhao, Jun Xu, Banggui Liu, Jingyun Gao, Jingmin Zhang, Wenguang Zhu, Hongjun Xu, Yanghui Sun, Qiang Fu, Li Chen and Dapeng Yu
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05892D

In this HOT article, Chinese researchers synthesized novel polyhedral 26-facet CuS microcages decorated with unique crystalline structures as building blocks via a facile sacrificial Cu₂O templates solution route. Each of the polyhedral 26-facet CuS microcages is constructed of three different structural shells, which are enclosed by three pairs of square mesostructural shells, four pairs of nanotwinned triangular shells, and six pairs of rectangular single crystalline shells. The study should be of great importance for the “bottom-up” assembly of unusual hollow ordering superstructures.

Read more for FREE until 21st September at:

Unique polyhedral 26-facet CuS hollow architectures decorated with nanotwinned, mesostructural and single crystalline shells
Shaodong Sun, Xiaoping Song, Chuncai Kong, Shuhua Liang, Bingjun Ding and Zhimao Yang
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05563A

In this CrystEngComm Hot article Joël Moreau and colleagues create a porous network from a host compound based on spirocyclic triphosphazene.

Their porous network has bigger cavity sizes and is more stable than other similiar structures, while still managing to achieve the desirable tunnel-like cavities found previously.

Read the full article for FREE to find out more about these porous networks…

Synthesis and crystal structure of tris(2,3-triphenylenedioxy)cyclotriphosphazene: a new clathration system
Mathias Reynes, Olivier J. Dautel, David Virieux, David Flot and Joël J. E. Moreau
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05529A

The classical crystalline motif categorizations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have gained
interest as of late as it was discovered that the ‘‘defining’’ crystallographic axis was not always the
‘‘shortest crystallographic axis’’ as previously thought and that systems under pressure would exhibit
a motif’s typical axis length but not its typical interplanar angle (theta).

In this CrystEngComm paper Bohdan Schatschneider and his team use Hirshfeld surfaces to investigate the relative percent of intermolecular close contact interactions existing within the four established crystalline PAH motifs under ambient and high pressures. It was discovered that in fact the fraction of C/C interactions (C/C%) coupled with theta could ultimately define the structural motifs. Read more for free until the 5th September 2011.

A new parameter for classification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon crystalline motifs: a Hirshfeld surface investigation
Bohdan Schatschneider, Jacob Phelps and Sebastian Jezowski
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05560G

Although pyrite has been made in many morphological forms, such as films, nanocubes and nanowires, microspheres have never been made …until now. Qi-Zhi Yao, Gen-Tao Zhou and their team based in Heifei, China have used a microwave-assisted polyol method to produce uniform and monodisperse pyrite microspherolites.

Monodisperse nano-/microspheres have attracted increasing attention because of their promising applications in optical and photonic crystals and microlenses and can be used as seed particles for the core-shell and hollow spheres. Read more in this recent CrystEngComm Hot Article.

Microwave-assisted controlled synthesis of monodisperse pyrite microspherolites
Mao-Lin Li, Qi-Zhi Yao, Gen-Tao Zhou, Xiao-Fei Qu, Cheng-Fa Mu and Sheng-Quan Fu
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05478C

Guoqi Zhang, Guoqiang Yang and coworkers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing make a series of bis(pyrrolyl)carbohydrazide derivatives in this CrystEngComm Hot article.

The compounds aggregate to form double helices in the solution state, an interesting discovery, as artificial double helices are very rare.

Read the full article for FREE until 30th August to find out more…

Self-complementary hydrogen-bonded duplexes and helices based on bis(pyrrolyl)carbohydrazide derivatives
Dehui Hu, Zhipei Yang, Guoqi Zhang, Min Liu, Junfeng Xiang, Tongling Liang, Jinshi Ma and Guoqiang Yang
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05542A

José Giner Planas and colleagues from the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), and Mark E. Light and Michael B. Hursthouse from the University of Southampton look at methyl-o-carboranyl and o-carboranyl alcohols bearing N-aromatic rings in this CrystEngComm Hot article.

Giner-Planas relates the presence of infinite O–H···N hydrogen bonding networks with melting points using decomposed Fingerprint plots, which looks to be a really interesting finding for crystal engineers.

Read the full article for FREE until 30th August…

Supramolecular architectures in o-carboranyl alcohols bearing N-aromatic rings: syntheses, crystal structures and melting points correlation
Florencia Di Salvo, Beatriz Camargo, Yolanda García, Francesc Teixidor, Clara Viñas, José Giner Planas, Mark E. Light and Michael B. Hursthouse
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05449J

In this CrystEngComm Hot article, Roberto Otero and colleagues from Spain self assemble zinc meso-tetramesitylporphyrin on copper and gold into one-dimensional nanorods.

Otero explains they are ‘shish-kebab type coordination polymers’, and that they can extend for hundreds of nanometres.

Read the full article for FREE to find out more about these porphyrin nanorods…

Surface assembly of porphyrin nanorods with one-dimensional zinc–oxygen spinal cords
Marta Trelka, Christian Urban, Celia Rogero, Paula de Mendoza, Eva Mateo-Marti, Yang Wang, Iñaki Silanes, David Écija, Manuel Alcamí, Felix Yndurain, Andrés Arnau, Fernando Martín, Antonio M. Echavarren, José Ángel Martín-Gago, José María Gallego, Roberto Otero and Rodolfo Miranda
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05494E

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Read this CrystEngComm Hot article to discover how the Kirkendall effect can be used to make BiOI nests.

Zhi Zheng and co-workers from Central China Normal University made δ-Bi2O3 spheres, which became the reactive template to make the hierarchical ternary BiOI nest-shaped structures.

Read the full article for FREE to find out more…

Low temperature synthesis of δ-Bi2O3 solid spheres and their conversion to hierarchical BiOI nests via the Kirkendall effect
Manying Liu, Lizhi Zhang, Kewei Wang and Zhi Zheng
CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05101F

A unique feature, which distinguishes some MOFs from conventional porous materials, is the ability to ‘breathe’ i.e. to expand or contract in response to external stimuli such as variation in temperature. Such flexible networks are also called ‘breathing’ MOFs. In their recent Hot Article Roland Fischer and his colleagues have  investigated the structural transformations of such breathing frameworks yielding valuable insights in the underlying mechanisms.

Read for free until the 20th August 2011

Multiple phase-transitions upon selective CO2 adsorption in an alkyl ether functionalized metal–organic framework—an in situ X-ray diffraction study
Sebastian Henke, D. C. Florian Wieland, Mikhail Meilikhov, Michael Paulus, Christian Sternemann, Kirill Yusenko and Roland A. Fischer
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05446E