CrystEngComm Blog

HOT Highlight: Zr(IV)-based metal–organic frameworks

04 Jan 2012

This comprehensive Highlight by Min Kim and Seth Cohen outlines the discovery, development and functionalization of Zr(IV)-based metal–organic frameworks. MOFs in general have been widely studied and the potential in biotechnological applications, catalysis, chemical sensing, gas separation and gas storage is of great interest.

Zr(IV)-based MOFs were discovered in 2008 and in that short period substantial research has been undertaken with more than forty functionalised Zr(IV)-based MOFs discovered. This review looks in detail at the synthesis, functionalization and application of this relatively new addition to the MOF family. The authors note the great potential for Zr(IV)-based MOFs, including applications in catalysis, photo-chemical reactions and molecular separations.

To find out more access this article free for the next 4 weeks

This article will be published later in the year in a CrystEngComm themed issue focussing on post-synthetic modification of coordination networks.

Discovery, development, and functionalization of Zr(IV)-based metal–organic frameworks
Min Kim and Seth M. Cohen
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06491J, Highlight

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This week’s CrystEngSelects

03 Jan 2012

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

Here is this week’s selection of advanced articles of interest to crystal engineers from across the RSC journals

Articles are chosen from:
ChemComm,
CrystEngComm,
Dalton Transactions,
Journal of Materials Chemistry,
New Journal of Chemistry,
Nanoscale,
Chemical Science.

Fluorene-based Cu(II)-MOF: a visual colorimetric anion sensor and separator based on an anion-exchange approach
Jian-Ping Ma, Yang Yu and Yu-Bin Dong
Chem. Commun., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CC16800F, Communication

Six-rayed star-like nanostructures in prospective plasmonic devices
Takumi Miyamoto, Shiomi Saito, Toshihiro Isobe, Akira Nakajima and Sachiko Matsushita
Chem. Commun., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CC16353E, Communication

Bucky-blocks: templating a coordination network with C60
Edwin C. Constable, Guoqi Zhang, Catherine E. Housecroft and Jennifer A. Zampese
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06156B, Paper

Crystal engineering of multiple-component organic solids: Pharmaceutical cocrystals of tadalafil with persistent hydrogen bonding motifs
David R. Weyna, Miranda L. Cheney, Ning Shan, Mazen Hanna, Łukasz Wojtas and Michael J. Zaworotko
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06574F, Communication

Discovery, development, and functionalization of Zr(IV)-based metal–organic frameworks
Min Kim and Seth M. Cohen
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06491J, Highlight

Step kinetics on monosodium urate monohydrate single crystal surfaces: an in situ AFM study
Clare M. Perrin and Jennifer A. Swift
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE05985A, Paper

New photoluminescence acylhydrazidate-coordinated complexes
Juan Jin, Fu-Quan Bai, Ming-Jun Jia, Yu Peng, Jie-Hui Yu and Ji-Qing Xu
Dalton Trans., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1DT11846C, Paper

Zinc and cadmium 2-pyrazinephosphonates: Syntheses, structures and luminescent properties
Yun-Sheng Ma, Xiao-Yan Tang, Wen-Yu Yin, Bin Wu, Feng-Feng Xue, Rong-Xin Yuan and Soumyajit Roy
Dalton Trans., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1DT11250C, Paper

Crystal structure of novel compounds in the systems Zr–Cu–Al, Mo–Pd–Al and partial phase equilibria in the Mo–Pd–Al system
Atta U. Khan, P. Rogl and G. Giester
Dalton Trans., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1DT11972A, Paper

Plastic crystal phases with high proton conductivity
Usman Ali Rana, R. Vijayaraghavan, Douglas R. MacFarlane and Maria Forsyth
J. Mater. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JM15288F, Paper

Change in the magnetostructural properties of rare earth doped cobalt ferrites relative to the magnetic anisotropy
S. R. Naik and A. V. Salker
J. Mater. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2JM15228B, Paper

Synthesis and characterisation of vanadium doped alkaline earth lanthanum germanate oxyapatite electrolyte
Henan Li, Tom Baikie, Stevin S. Pramana, J. Felix Shin, Peter R. Slater, Frank Brink, James Hester, Kia Wallwork and Tim J. White
J. Mater. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1JM13752B, Paper

A new congruent-melting oxyborate, Pb4O(BO3)2 with optimally aligned BO3 triangles adopting layered-type arrangement
Hongwei Yu, Shilie Pan, Hongping Wu, Wenwu Zhao, Fangfang Zhang, Hongyi Li and Zhihua Yang
J. Mater. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1JM14590H, Paper

Piezofluorochromism and morphology of a new aggregation-induced emission compound derived from tetraphenylethylene and carbazole
Xie Zhou, Haiyin Li, Zhenguo Chi, Xiqi Zhang, Jianyong Zhang, Bingjia Xu, Yi Zhang, Siwei Liu and Jiarui Xu
New J. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20782B, Paper

New-phase VO2 micro/nanostructures: investigation of phase transformation and magnetic property
Liang Liu, Feng Cao, Tao Yao, Yang Xu, Min Zhou, Bingyan Qu, Bicai Pan, Changzheng Wu, Shiqiang Wei and Yi Xie
New J. Chem., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20798A, Paper

Growth and branching of gold nanoparticles through mesoporous silica thin films
Paula C. Angelomé, Isabel Pastoriza-Santos, Jorge Pérez-Juste, Benito Rodríguez-González, Andrés Zelcer, Galo J. A. A. Soler-Illia and Luis M. Liz-Marzán
Nanoscale, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2NR11547F, Paper

Synthesis of bimetallic Pt-Pd core-shell nanocrystals and their high electrocatalytic activity modulated by Pd shell thickness
Yujing Li, Zhi Wei Wang, Chin-Yi Chiu, Lingyan Ruan, Wenbing Yang, Yang Yang, Richard E. Palmer and Yu Huang
Nanoscale, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1NR11374G, Paper
Polyoxometalate-based crystalline tubular microreactor: redox-active inorganic–organic hybrid materials producing gold nanoparticles and catalytic properties
Dong-Ying Du, Jun-Sheng Qin, Ting-Ting Wang, Shun-Li Li, Zhong-Min Su, Kui-Zhan Shao, Ya-Qian Lan, Xin-Long Wang and En-Bo Wang
Chem. Sci., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2SC00586G, Edge Article

Changing and challenging times for service crystallography
Simon J. Coles and Philip A. Gale
Chem. Sci., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2SC00955B, Minireview

RbFe2+Fe3+F6: Synthesis, structure, and characterization of a new charge-ordered magnetically frustrated pyrochlore-related mixed-metal fluoride
Sun Woo Kim, Sang-Hwan Kim, P. Shiv Halasyamani, Mark A. Green, Kanwal Preet Bhatti, C. Leighton, Hena Das and Craig J. Fennie
Chem. Sci., 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2SC00765G, Edge Article

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Herding? You’ll need either a dog, a pig, or HFB

23 Dec 2011

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

Magnetism in organic crystal structures can be quite a complex property and understanding it’s subtleties is an intense field of study. This HOT Highlight in CrystEngComm details the magnetic properties and crystal structures of functionalized pyrene radicals, Paul M. Lahti et al. found that different polymorphs led to different magnetic properties and that intermolecular distances of NO—ON contacts played a key role in the resultant magnetism. The authors also discovered they could ‘shepherd’ molecules by adding hexafluorobenzene (HFB), altering the stacking and intermolecular contacts resulted in different exchange interactions between the radical molecules. In the co-crystal they observed a weaker but further extending magnetic behaviour, showing how rational manipulation of crystallisation conditions can lead to controlled magnetic properties.

Read the full Highlight which is free to access for 4 weeks in CrystEngComm

Radicals organized by disk shaped aromatics – polymorphism and co-crystals that tune inter-electron exchange
Handan Akpinar, Joel T. Mague, Miguel A. Novak, Jonathan R. Friedman and Paul M. Lahti
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE06096A

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Happy Christmas from CrystEngComm!

21 Dec 2011

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

It has been an exciting year at CrystEngComm, as you’ll see with a few of the highlights we’ve picked out for you in this Christmas inspired post. There were our themed issues ‘Crystal Growth’, ‘Reactions in molecular solids and host–guest systems’, ‘Dynamic behaviour and reactivity in crystalline solids’, the online themed issue ‘Fluorine Chemistry’ and the themed issue on ‘2D Crystal Engineering’. These specialised topics between them saw the publication of over 100 articles in these exciting research areas and we owe many thanks to the authors and editors who helped make these issues the success they were.

At various conferences across the globe we awarded young crystal engineers prizes for their work including at the ‘Midwest Organic Solid-State Chemistry Symposium XXI’, USA, ‘IUCr Madrid 2011’, Spain and ‘ICCOSS XX’, India, well done to those and all the other 2011 CrystEngComm prize winners!

In May there was the opening of the CrystEngComm editorial office in China and Professor Shu-Hong Yu was appointed Associate Editor. Also this summer Nicola Pinna joined the Editorial Board. Dan Shechtman gave an insightful interview in October which is still available to read on the blog, as well several other interviews from our board members and authors. Also with Christmas looming make sure you check out December’s Crystal Clear, which looks very much like a crystal Christmas Tree!

It’s difficult to cover the entire year in one blog post so feel free to browse the CrystEngComm blog and facebook page or keep up to date with events real time by following us on twitter or signing up to e-alerts

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at CrystEngComm

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December Crystal Clear: A Christmas Crystal

21 Dec 2011

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

This month’s very festive Crystal Clear looks surprisingly like a Christmas tree!
In fact this is a dendritic nickel nanocrystal synthesised by Zhang et al. using a simple electrolytic process in ethylene glycol solution. The microstructures have trunks of around 10 µm with ordered branches approximately 0.5-1.5 µm long and a thickness of 210 nm. The authors found they were able to control the morphology of the structures by adjusting the experimental conditions such as precursor concentration, voltage and the temperature of the reaction.

Designing nano-structures is an area of great interest as the size and shape can significantly affect the properties, in this instance it was found that compared with bulk Ni the Ni dendritic crystals exhibited a decreased saturation magnetism but an enhanced coercivity.

You can find out more about their work by reading the advance article in CrystEngComm which is free to access for 4 weeks.

Electrolytic approach towards the controllable synthesis of symmetric, hierarchical, and highly ordered nickel dendritic crystals
Jian Wang, Liangming Wei, Liying Zhang, Yafei Zhang and Chuanhai Jiang
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE06066J, Paper

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Hot Article: High quality, without phase separation – progress in a-plane MgZnO epilayer growth

20 Dec 2011

By Jennifer Newton, Publishing Editor.

Resonant Rutherford backscattering spectrometry along with with ion channeling revealed a uniform growth in both composition and atomic order.

Andrés Redondo-Cubero and colleagues detail the growth of high-quality thick a-plane MgZnO epilayers that can be grown without phase-separation but that contain greater than 50% Mg. The team also constructed Au-MgZnO photodiodes to test if the layers could be used in optoelectronic devices, giving positive results.

To find out more, download this CrystEngComm paper today…

Single phase a-plane MgZnO epilayers for UV optoelectronics: substitutional behaviour of Mg at large contents
A. Redondo-Cubero, A. Hierro, J.-M. Chauveau, K. Lorenz, G. Tabares, N. Franco, E. Alves and E. Muñoz
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06315H

You might also find this paper interesting:

Density and aspect ratio controlled MgZnO nanowire arrays by spontaneous phase separation effect
Dong Chan Kim, Ju Ho Lee, Sanjay Kumar Mohanta, Hyung Koun Cho, Hyoungsub Kim and Jeong Yong Lee
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 813-818
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00114G

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HOT Article: Superior tableting from ionised amide groups

16 Dec 2011

By Helen Lunn, Publishing Editor.

This HOT article reports the first salt form of acetaminophen, which is shown to have superior tableting properties relative to the stable polymorph of the unionised drug. Amide groups are generally considered non-ionisable for the purposes of drug development and there are only a handful of crystal structures with ionised amide groups known. This success of forming an amide–hydrochloride salt using a simple experimental protocol may well encourage other research groups, both industrial and academic, to attempt salt formation with amides.

Read more about this important contribution to solid-state chemistry for FREE until 10th January 2012 at:
Ionized form of acetaminophen with improved compaction properties
Sathyanarayana Reddy Perumalla, Limin Shi and Changquan Calvin Sun
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE06278F

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500,000 structures and counting!

15 Dec 2011

By Claire Murray, Web Writer.

Solid form informatics is the use of knowledge-based techniques to evaluate and analyse structures, as well as to predict properties. Identifying solid forms of drugs with suitable physiochemical properties and reducing the late-stage appearance of additional drug forms are very attractive financial prospects for the pharmaceutical industry. Solid form informatics study of Lamotrigine, a pharmaceutical crystal structure

In this CrystEngComm advance article, Peter Galek and colleagues at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre use a series of tools available in the Cambridge Structural Database System to analyse the 500,000th structure, deposited by Sridhar and Ravikumar (CSD Reference Code: EFEMUX01). Lamotrigine is an approved drug (marketed in the US as Lamictal) for the treatment of bipolar disorder, with considerable anticonvulsant activity.

By using a comprehensive series of molecular, intermolecular and supramolecular analyses, methylparaben is identified as the optimal candidate from five pharmaceutically acceptable co-formers for lamotrigine. This correlates well with experimental data previously published by Miranda Cheney and colleagues, confirming the team’s prioritisation of potential conformer candidates for lamotrigine through detailed assessment of shape complementarity and hydrogen bond propensity.

Read the full article to find out more…

One in half a million: a solid form informatics study of a pharmaceutical crystal structure
Peter T. A. Galek, Elna Pidcock, Peter A. Wood, Ian J. Bruno and Colin R. Groom
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06362J

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We can’t predict snow but can we predict melting points?

14 Dec 2011

By Matthew Cude, Development Editor.

A computational and experimental investigation into crystal packing and melting points

Computational inorganic chemistry has been providing significant insight into understanding chemical interactions and properties for some time now and the fruits of this labour are likely to become more in-depth and frequent as technologies advance. Simon Grabowsky et al. have been investigating the crystal packing in a series of naphthodioxanes which they systematically modified to possess larger R-groups and characterised the crystal structures of the materials at 100K.

The team also performed Hirshfeld surface analysis (a definition of molecular boundaries and intermolecular interactions) on their series of compounds and were able to correlate the surface analysis information with the crystal melting points. The team used molecules that don’t contain the traditional H-bond donor functional groups such as N-H and O-H so they were able to distinguish between the effects of different types of weaker interactions.

You can read the full details of this insightful investigation by accessing the full paper which is free for 4 weeks.

The Dalton Transactions themed issue ‘Computational chemistry of inorganic systems’ might also be of interest!

Crystal packing in the 2-R,4-oxo-[1,3-a/b]-naphthodioxanes – Hirshfeld surface analysis and melting point correlation
Simon Grabowsky, Pamela M. Dean, Brian W. Skelton, Alexandre N. Sobolev, Mark A. Spackman and Allan H. White
CrystEngComm, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2CE06393J

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British Crystallographic Association Spring Meeting Warwick 2012

13 Dec 2011

By Claire Murray, Web Writer.

The annual spring meeting of the British Crystallographic Association will be held at Warwick University from 16th to 19th April 2012.

The theme this year is ‘Challenges in Crystallography’ to reflect the upcoming Olympics in London in 2012. The deadline for abstracts to be considered for oral presentations and posters is 16th January 2012, to be submitted online at http://crystallography.org.uk/

Sessions include Hydrogen Bonding, Phase Transitions and Multidimensional Approaches. Confirmed plenary speakers include Branton Campbell, Laurence Pearl and Robin Taylor. The first day of the meeting will be the Young Crystallographers satellite meeting, containing presentations and poster sessions from students and young researchers. The meeting is organised by the 2012 planning committee, and chaired by Kirsten Christensen of the University of Oxford.

Registration is now open! Book Now to take advantage of the Early Bird Rate, which will close on 12th March 2012.

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CrystEngComm Blog

HOT Highlight: Zr(IV)-based metal–organic frameworks

This week’s CrystEngSelects

Herding? You’ll need either a dog, a pig, or HFB

Happy Christmas from CrystEngComm!

December Crystal Clear: A Christmas Crystal

Hot Article: High quality, without phase separation – progress in a-plane MgZnO epilayer growth

HOT Article: Superior tableting from ionised amide groups

500,000 structures and counting!

We can’t predict snow but can we predict melting points?

British Crystallographic Association Spring Meeting Warwick 2012

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