CrystEngComm Blog

Chinping Chen, Rongming Wang and colleagues have made perfect single crystals of MgBr₂, as part of their collaboration between Peking University and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Magnesium diboride is known for its good superconducting properties, and many forms of MgB2 have been made previously, but large single crystals are still extremely difficult to obtain. In this CrystEngComm Hot article, Chen and Wang use a hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition technique to obtain perfect crystals.

Read the full article to find out more about magnesium diboride single crystals…

Single-crystal MgB2 hexagonal microprisms via hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition
Weimeng Chen, Wei Liu, Chinping Chen, Rongming Wang and Qingrong Feng
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05272A, Communication

FREE TO READ until 13th May

In this HOT article, Chinese scientists describe the controlled synthesis of orderly NaLa(MoO₄)₂ shuttle-like architectures (nanorods composed of nanoparticles) composed of nanoparticles under hydrothermal conditions.  Ethylene glycol was used as the solvent which can decrease the reaction rate by forming ligand bonds with lanthanide ions and further control the final morphology of the product.  Eu³⁺ ion was chosen as a structural information probe to obtain more luminescent and phase structure information.

Read more for FREE until 12th May 2011 at:

Synthesis and luminescent properties of NaLa(MoO₄)₂:Eu³⁺ shuttle-like nanorods composed of nanoparticles
Mei Yang, Hongpeng You, Yongchao Jia, Hui Qiao, Ning Guo and Yanhua Song
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0CE00822B

In this HOT article, Kitagawa and co-workers describe two isomorphic frameworks, [Zn(thdc)(dpNDI)]_n, based on 2,5-thiophenedicarboxylate (thdc) as the topology-directing ligand,  assembled from zinc ions and N,N‘-di(4-pyridyl)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide (dpNDI) as the electron-accepting ligand.  The unique connecting angle of thdc promotes the formation of either a 3D pillared-layer framework or an interdigitated 2D layer framework, which are originally synthesized with terephthalic acid or isophthalic acid, respectively.  In addition, these isomers show different charge-transfer interactions with electron-donating aromatic molecules because of their intrinsic porous structure determined by their topology.  Such a topological design of PCPs can be used in guest-selective sensor materials.

Read more for FREE until 12th May 2011 here:

Control of the charge-transfer interaction between a flexible porous coordination host and aromatic guests by framework isomerism
Yohei Takashima, Shuhei Furukawa and Susumu Kitagawa
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05201B

See also the tutorial review on coordination polymers by Kitagawa:

Dynamic porous properties of coordination polymers inspired by hydrogen bonds
Susumu Kitagawa and Kazuhiro Uemura
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2005, 34, 109-119
DOI:10.1039/B313997M

This CrystEngComm Hot article demonstrates the fabrication of metal nitride nanofibres by electrospinning and thermolysis in different atmospheres.

Xingbin Yan and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou make zinc titanate compounds, which are known for their wide application in roles as varied as paint pigments, gas sensors and catalysis.

In this paper they are making Zn₂TiO₄, which is an inverse spinel, and TiN nanofibers, but their method can be extended to other metal nitrides.

Read the full article to find out more about these nanofibers…

Fabrication of Zn2TiO4 and TiN nanofibers by pyrolysis of electrospun precursor fibers
Dongfei Sun, Xingbin Yan, Jiangtao Chen, Shengxue Yu, Litian Hu and Qunji Xue
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05033H, Paper

FREE TO READ until 14th May

Designing metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with structure-based properties has received a considerable amount of interest in recent years. This is due to their fascinating molecular structures and potential applications in molecular adsorption, separation, heterogeneous catalysis, magnetism and electrical conductivity.

The basic strategy for constructing MOFs is to use an appropriate organic ligand, especially bridging ligands containing multi-dentate oxygen or nitrogen donors, to coordinate to the metal centers.  Cucurbit[n]uril (n = 5–8, 10, abbreviated as Q[n]) is a class of barrel-shaped organic macrocyclic ligand with identical carbonyl-laced portals on each side. The polar carbonyl groups of the Q[n]s are capable of metal-coordination and therefore Q[n]s are promising building blocks for the construction of coordination polymers.

Now in this CrystEngComm Hot Article, Zhu Tao et al., report the synthesis and crystal structures of three coordination polymers with K⁺, Rb⁺ and Cs⁺ coupled with (HO)₁₀Q[5] as the building block.

Read this article for free until 5th May 2011 here.

Coordination polymers constructed from alkali metal ions and (HO)10cucurbit[5]uril
Xin Xiao, Zhu Tao, Sai-Feng Xue, Yun-Qian Zhang, Qian-Jiang Zhu, Jing-Xin Liu and Gang Wei
CrystEngComm, 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1CE05162H