CrystEngComm Blog

Polymorphism in ionic liquids

17 Aug 2012

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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Highlights from themed issues on ionic liquids

30 Jul 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

A collection of high impact research published in themed issues from ChemComm, PCCP and CrystEngComm.

The field of ionic liquids has seen phenomenal growth in recent years, with the topic spanning a variety of disciplines across the chemical sciences. The recent themed issues from ChemComm, PCCP and CrystEngComm showcase some of the latest developments from a range of scientific subjects utilising the unique properties of ionic liquids.

Highlights from these themed issues include the articles below, which are free to download until the 24th August. You can also access the full themed issues by clicking on the buttons above.

Click here to access the full list of articles

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Porous aromatic frameworks

27 Jul 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.

Teng Ben and Shilun Qiu discuss porous aromatic framework network formation and the relationship between secondary building units and function in this hot Highlight article. The ability to control the pore size in porous aromatic frameworks lends itself to numerous applications, including in molecular separation, catalysis, photoelectric materials, clean energy and carbon dioxide capture and storage.

You can download the full article below, which is free to access for 4 weeks.

Porous aromatic frameworks: Synthesis, structure and functions
Teng Ben and Shilun Qiu
CrystEngComm, 2012
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25409C, Highlight

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Hydrogels for studying biomineralisation

23 Jul 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.

Hydrogel-based double-diffusion systems for studying biomineralization

This Highlight presents an overview of hydrogel-based double-diffusion systems to study biomineralization. The authors describe two types of diffusion systems: static and dynamic. They evaluated four such systems to design an optimized system taking into account the type of hydrogel, the boundary conditions and design strategy.

Gels represent a good model to study and understand biomineralization because the mineral deposition that occurs in many mineralization processes in vivo takes place in gelling environments; however, they are not often used due to their complexity and poor knowledge of ionic diffusion.

Read more about biomineralisation for FREE at:

Rediscovering hydrogel-based double-diffusion systems for studying biomineralization
Jason R. Dorvee , Adele L. Boskey and Lara A. Estroff
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE25289A

Other articles by Lara A. Estroff and co-workers which may also be of interest are:

Gel incorporation inside of organic single crystals grown in agarose hydrogels
Hanying Li, Yuzo Fujiki, Kazuki Sada and Lara A. Estroff
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 1060-1062
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00118J, Communication

Porous calcite single crystals grown from a hydrogel medium
Hanying Li and Lara A. Estroff
CrystEngComm, 2007, 9, 1153-1155
DOI: 10.1039/B709068D, Communication
From themed issue: CrystEngComm focuses on biomineralisation

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Facile, economical and magnetically recoverable photo-Fenton’s reagent

20 Jul 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

Zhijun Luo, Xiangyang Wu et al. have recently developed a facile one-step route to generate magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres exhibiting excellent photodegradation properties, without the need of H₂O₂ or UV light.

Wastewater can contain many contaminants including a wide range of organic material; the photo-Fenton reaction is a highly efficient way to oxidise these pollutants using Fe³⁺, H₂O₂ and UV light to generate^.OH radicals.

The materials reported here are highly water-dispersible, easy to make and operate under visible light across a wide pH range. The magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres can also be recovered magnetically making this a convenient reaction to use.

A schematic illustration of the magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres (MCRCS) generating hydroxyl radicals under visible light in water.

You can take a look at how the particles particles behave under applied magnetic fields in these videos, pure nano magnetite in water and magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres in water.

You can also download the full communication, which is free to access for 4 weeks
A visible-light-driven solid state photo-Fenton reagent based on magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon spheres
Zhijun Luo, Hongjun Tang, Lingling Qu, Tingting Han and Xiangyang Wu

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July Crystal Clear: Crystal Cavern

12 Jul 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

An image taken through an optical microscope of L-arginine acetate grown using a 'Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Crystallization’ process.

The beautiful image in this month’s crystal clear isn’t actually a crystal cavern. It is crystals of L-arginine acetate grown using a new crystallisation technique. The crystals are of particular interest in non-linear optics given their second harmonic generation properties.

The Aslan Research Group have developed a new crystallisation method to grow L-arginine acetate crystals much faster than the previously reported cooling/evaporation method. The ‘Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Crystallization’ process uses silver island films and low power microwave heating to grow the crystals quickly. The team also investigated functionalising the metal nucleation surface to see if this enhanced crystal growth.

The image shown here is of the crystals created using bare silver island films and microwaves, the rest of the teams results, including full details of their growth process can be found in Issue 14 of CrystEngComm.

Rapid crystallization of L-arginine acetate on engineered surfaces using metal-assisted and microwave-accelerated evaporative crystallization
Melissa A. Pinard, Tsehai A. J. Grell, Danielle Pettis, Muzaffer Mohammed and Kadir Aslan