Aggregated “simple” luminogens emit bright red light
Read the full original research paper…
Aggregation-induced emission enhancement materials with large red shifts and their self-assembled crystal microstructures
Qing Dai, Weimin Liu, Lintao Zeng, Chun-Sing Lee, Jiasheng Wu and Pengfei Wang
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 4617-4624
Supramolecular synthons based on halogen bonding have been identified as excellent tools for the design and synthesis of supramolecular architectures. This growing field in crystal engineering has led to many discoveries of new and exciting intermolecular bonding motifs.
In this advance article, Kari Raatikainen and Kari Rissanen from the University of Jyväskylä report extremely short X···N synthons (where X= Br, I) from the crystal structures of N-haloimides with a series of amines and identify a unique example of a halogen bond based tubular material.
X-ray structure analyses reveal that X···N (X = Br, I) distances range from 2.347 Å to 2.596 Å. These unusually short halogen bond distances suggest an extremely polarized halogen atom, which allows exceptionally large overlap of Van der Waals volumes with the donor atom. The tetrahedral arrangement of N-iodosuccinimide with tetrafunctional hexamethylenetetramine exhibits these very strong halogen bonds, as well as multiple weak C-H···O hydrogen bonds, to form infinite channels with 7.31 Å × 6.74 Å diameter along the crystallographic c axis. The properties of this complex as a porous material are currently under investigation.
Interaction between amines and N-haloimides: a new motif for unprecedentedly short Br···N and I···N halogen bonds
Kari Raatikainen and Kari Rissanen
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article DOI:10.1039/C1CE05447C
This month’s Crystal Clear shows a vanadia star-shaped nanocrystal.
The crystal was made by Sarbajit Banerjee and colleagues at the State University of New York, Buffalo. They were making six-armed nanocrystallites of binary vanadium oxides, and although in this particular image the arms aren’t fully separated, we still thought it was a great looking crystal. They used a new seeded growth strategy that was very successful in making controlled shapes with good monodispersity, and you’ll have to read the full paper to see the complete nanostars!
Vanadium oxides are important in technology, partly because the variety of structures they can form makes them invaluable as host lattices, but also because of their interesting electonic, electrochromic, magnetic and optical properties. Vanadium oxides have consequently been used in batteries, as well as optical applications like laser crystals and switching devices.
This paper was published in Issue 17 of CrystEngComm, and was featured on the front cover, read our earlier blog to find out more.
Read the full article for free to find our more and to see the fully formed star-shaped crystals…
A VO-seeded approach for the growth of star-shaped VO2 and V2O5 nanocrystals: facile synthesis, structural characterization, and elucidation of electronic structure
Luisa Whittaker, Jesus M. Velazquez and Sarbajit Banerjee
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 5328-5336
Issue 17 of CrystEngComm is now online, with a brilliant cover from Sarbajit Banerjee from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
The image shows their star-shaped vanadium oxide nanocrystals, which in this paper they make via a new seeded growth strategy. Their technique is particularly impressive because of the well-defined morphologies of their crystals. Banerjee writes ‘[our results]…suggest a generalizable approach for using the intrinsic crystal symmetry of one phase to control the crystal growth of a second related phase under solvothermal conditions’
Read the full article to find out more, and to see their pretty crystals!…
A VO-seeded approach for the growth of star-shaped VO2 and V2O5 nanocrystals: facile synthesis, structural characterization, and elucidation of electronic structure
Luisa Whittaker, Jesus M. Velazquez and Sarbajit Banerjee
CrystEngComm, 2011, 13, 5328-533
Interested in Dr Banerjee’s research? Visit his webpage at the University at Buffalo…
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
Making pyrite hierarchical microspheres for the first time………….
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
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
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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