Dynamic single crystal to polycrystal transformation of a 1D-coordination polymer and its second harmonic generation

Abstract

Upon guest CHCl₃ release, the one-dimensional (1D) coordination polymer 1·CHCl₃ gives rise to a non-porous structure, 1, following a unit cell volume reduction of ca. 22%. Due to the considerable structural transformation, the single crystal does not maintain its integrity, and therefore the structure determination has been carried out by combining single crystal X-ray diffraction and ab initio X-ray powder diffraction analyses. The result shows a symmetry breaking transformation leading to an acentric crystalline material (1), which shows nonlinear optical properties such as second harmonic generation.