Observation of bending, cracking and jumping phenomena on cooling and heating of tetrahydrate berberine chloride crystals

Abstract

The crystals of tetrahydrate berberine chloride exhibit a variety of instantaneous mechanical responses (cracking, bending and jumping) on cooling as well as on heating at room temperature. In either direction, the thermo-mechanical responses are manifested by rapid dehydration to a new dihydrated phase with the complete loss of crystal integrity due to the sudden release of an energetically unfavorable arrangement of water molecules.