Issue 19, 2022

Steps towards a nature inspired inorganic crystal engineering

Abstract

This Perspective outlines the results obtained at the University of Bologna by applying crystal engineering strategies to develop nature inspired organic–inorganic materials to tackle challenges in the health and environment sectors. It is shown by means of a number of examples that co-crystallization of inorganic salts, such as alkali and transition metal halides, with organic compounds, such as amino acids, urea, thiourea and quaternary ammonium salts, can be successfully used for (i) chiral resolution and conglomerate formation from racemic compounds, (ii) inhibition of soil enzyme activity in order to reduce urea decomposition and environmental pollution, and (iii) preparation of novel agents to tackle antimicrobial resistance. All materials described in this Perspective have been obtained by mechanochemical solvent-free or slurry methods and characterized by solid state techniques. The fundamental idea is that a crystal engineering approach based on the choice of intermolecular interactions (coordination and hydrogen bonds) between organic and inorganic compounds allows obtaining materials with collective properties that are different, and often very much superior to those of the separate components. It is also demonstrated that the success of this strategy depends crucially on cross-disciplinary synergistic exchange with expert scientists in the areas of bioinorganics, microbiology, and chirality application-oriented developments of these novel materials.

Graphical abstract: Steps towards a nature inspired inorganic crystal engineering

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
17 Mar 2022
Accepted
20 Apr 2022
First published
20 Apr 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Dalton Trans., 2022,51, 7390-7400

Steps towards a nature inspired inorganic crystal engineering

F. Grepioni, L. Casali, C. Fiore, L. Mazzei, R. Sun, O. Shemchuk and D. Braga, Dalton Trans., 2022, 51, 7390 DOI: 10.1039/D2DT00834C

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