CrystEngComm Blog

‘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

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

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

By Claire Murray, Web Writer.

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

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

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

By Claire Murray, Web Writer.

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

By Jennifer Newton, Publishing Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees. And we’ve made it free to access for 4 weeks.

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

By Helen Lunn, Publishing Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees. And we’ve made it free to access for 4 weeks.

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.

Chemical Vapour Deposition for engineering oxide nanosystems

07 Aug 2012

By Jennifer Newton, Publishing Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees. And we’ve made it free to access for 4 weeks.

Chemical Vapour Deposition-based growth can help tailor the properties of oxide-based nanomaterials.

Davide Barreca and colleagues survey the current literature on multi-component oxide nanosystems obtained by Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) in their HOT Highlight article. Three bi-component categories of nanomaterials are discussed in detail; these are metal/oxide, oxide/oxide and carbon/oxide systems.

The metal/oxide materials include zinc oxide-based systems which are some of the most investigated composites obtained by CVD-based methods. Tin dioxide nanowires covered by iron oxide nanocrystals are an example of the oxide/oxide nanomaterials examined, with CVD techniques being critical for obtaining interconnected magnetite superstructures. A combined plasma enhanced-CVD and electrodeposition approach to create nanofibers coated with manganese oxide is an example of a carbon/oxides systems.

Future challenges include controlling phenomena occurring at interfaces between the materials but the flexibility of CVD techniques can help with overcoming these to further exploit and develop novel oxide nanosystems. Download the Highlight today to find out more; it’s free for 4 weeks.

Multi-component oxide nanosystems by Chemical Vapor Deposition and related routes: challenges and perspectives
Daniela Bekermann, Davide Barreca, Alberto Gasparotto and Chiara Maccato
CrystEngComm, 2012
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25624J, Highlight

Here are some other articles from the team that you might find interesting…

Controlled synthesis and properties of beta-Fe₂O₃ nanosystems functionalized with Ag or Pt nanoparticles
Giorgio Carraro, Davide Barreca, Elisabetta Comini, Alberto Gasparotto, Chiara Maccato, Cinzia Sada and Giorgio Sberveglieri
CrystEngComm, 2012
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25956G, Paper

Strongly oriented Co₃O₄ thin films on MgO(100) and MgAl₂O₄(100) substrates by PE-CVD
Davide Barreca, Anjana Devi, Roland A. Fischer, Daniela Bekermann, Alberto Gasparotto, Marco Gavagnin, Chiara Maccato, Eugenio Tondello, Elza Bontempi, Laura E. Depero and Cinzia Sada
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 3670-3673
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05280B, Communication

Malonate complexes of dysprosium: synthesis, characterization and application for LI-MOCVD of dysprosium containing thin films
Andrian P. Milanov, Rüdiger W. Seidel, Davide Barreca, Alberto Gasparotto, Manuela Winter, Jürgen Feydt, Stephan Irsen, Hans-Werner Becker and Anjana Devi
Dalton Trans., 2011, 40, 62-78
DOI: 10.1039/C0DT00455C, Paper

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Understanding hydrogen bonding

30 Jul 2012

By Fiona McKenzie, Executive Editor.

This article is HOT as recommended by the referees. And we’ve made it free to access for 4 weeks.

Co-crystallisation is an important tool for establishing the importance of intermolecular interactions in the solid state. One strategy adopted by Christer Aakeröy and his team at Kansas State University is to examine whether crystallisation of two molecules results in a homomeric interaction (essentially recrystallisation) or a heteromeric interaction (co-crystallisation). Combining 2-aminopyrazine derivatives with numerous carboxylic acids, the team discovered that they could attribute the success of co-crystallisation with electrostatic charges on the hydrogen bond acceptor sites – as they predicted, the lower the charge, the lower the supramolecular yield of the reaction.

Although hydrogen bonding is a fundamental concept taught to us in the classroom, we still have a lot to learn!

Read the article to find out more…

Exploring the structural landscape of 2-aminopyrazines via co-crystallizations
Christer B. Aakeröy, Prashant D. Chopade, Claudia Ganser, Arbin Rajbanshi and John Desper

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CrystEngComm Blog

‘New talent: Americas’ Collection now online

This month’s CrystEngSelects

Crystallography Centennial Celebrations

August Crystal Clear: A Crystal Hedgehog

AsCA 12/CRYSTAL 28

Screw growth of crystals can copy nature’s spirals

Polymorphism in ionic liquids

Top ten most accessed articles in June

Chemical Vapour Deposition for engineering oxide nanosystems

Understanding hydrogen bonding

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