CrystEngComm Blog

Sensing humidity with MOFs

17 Sep 2012

Researchers from China have designed coordination frameworks which exhibit varing levels of luminescence when exposed to air of different humidities.

The porous terbium-based metal organic framework reversibly absorbs/desorbs water molecules into its structure. When additonal water molecules are coordinated to the framework, the compound emits a bright green colour (easily detectable by the naked eye) – the result of a reduced O-H vibrational quenching in the complex.

Read more by downloading the CrystEngComm article now:

Luminescent humidity sensors based on porous Ln³⁺-MOFs
Yang Yu, Jiang-Ping Ma and Yu-Bin Dong

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Top ten most accessed articles in July

12 Sep 2012

By Kate Bandoo, Publishing Assistant.

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

Synthesis and characterization of a zinc metal–organic framework with chiral nano-pores
Lingjuan Shen , Danielle Gray , Richard I. Masel and Gregory S. Girolami
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5145-5147 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25780G

A 6-fold interpenetrated ThSi2 topological metal–organic framework from a nanosized tripodal aromatic acid
Chunhua Ma , Yong Wu , Jun Zhang , Yan Xu , Beibei Tu , Yaoming Zhou , Min Fang and Hong-Ke Liu
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5166-5169 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25422K

Ionic liquids as crystallisation media for inorganic materials
Ejaz Ahmed , Joachim Breternitz , Matthias Friedrich Groh and Michael Ruck
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 4874-4885 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25166C

Stepwise pillar insertion into metal–organic frameworks: a sequential self-assembly approach
Brandon J. Burnett and Wonyoung Choe
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 6129-6131 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25545F

Remarkable solvent-size effects in constructing novel porous 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate metal–organic frameworks
Xiang-Rong Hao , Xin-Long Wang , Kui-Zhan Shao , Guang-Sheng Yang , Zhong-Min Su and Gang Yuan
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5596-5603 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25343G

Porosity in metal–organic frameworks following thermolytic postsynthetic deprotection: gas sorption, dye uptake and covalent derivatisation
Anushree Sen Gupta , Rajesh K. Deshpande , Lujia Liu , Geoffrey I. N. Waterhouse and Shane G. Telfer
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5701-5704 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25854D

Two solvent-dependent zinc(ii) supramolecular isomers: structure analysis, reversible and nonreversible crystal-to-crystal transformation, highly selective CO2 gas adsorption, and photoluminescence behaviors
Bo Liu , Ling-Yan Pang , Lei Hou , Yao-Yu Wang , Yue Zhang and Qi-Zhen Shi
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 6246-6251 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE26058A

Coordination polymers, metal–organic frameworks and the need for terminology guidelines
Stuart R. Batten , Neil R. Champness , Xiao-Ming Chen , Javier Garcia-Martinez , Susumu Kitagawa , Lars Öhrström , Michael O’Keeffe , Myunghyun Paik Suh and Jan Reedijk
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 3001-3004 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06488J

Synthesis of phase-pure SnO2 nanosheets with different organized structures and their lithium storage properties
Jun Song Chen , Mei Feng Ng , Hao Bin Wu , Lei Zhang and Xiong Wen (David) Lou
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5133-5136 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25349F

Metal–organic frameworks built from achiral cyclohex-1-ene-1,2-dicarboxylate: syntheses, structures and photoluminescence properties
Yun Gong , Tao Wu , Jianhua Lin and Baoshan Wang
CrystEngComm, 2012,14, 5649-5656 DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06415D

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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The diverse crystal forms of rifaximin

07 Sep 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.

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

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.

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

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

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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CrystEngComm Blog

Sensing humidity with MOFs

Top ten most accessed articles in July

The diverse crystal forms of rifaximin

Supramolecular engineering via halogen bonding

‘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

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